Control freak
by merendes
Summary: When you find out that someone messed with your mind, what will you do? Can it be forgiven? Or will you take revenge on anyone who participated and utterly destroy them? Watch what would Naruto do. Warning: Do not expect to see in this story the canon Naruto or Naruto wielding some ridiculous bloodline.
1. Prolog

Prolog

Sarutobi was smoking his favorite pipe. Last shipment of a tobacco was extremely good and so instead of working on never ending paperwork, he was procrastinating. Sadly it should came to an end very soon. Heavily layered detection seals hidden under the paint of his office and attuned to his own chakra alerted him to shinobi approaching Hokage tower at high speed, who obviously didn't have an intention of using door to enter his office. However Sarutobi was not concerned, because the nearing chakra was very familiar to him. In the next moment there was soft creaking of a window ledge.

"You are late, I was awaiting you three days ago Jiraya," said Sarutobi bitingly and turned around to face his wayward student. "I will be long dead, when you stop dedicating your life on you perverted hobby, won't I?"

"Of course", smirked Jiraya and dropped into sofa on the right hand side of Sarutobi's desk. "Nevertheless I have to say: Reason why I am late lies somewhere else. Do you want report now or later?"

"Now, at least I will have an excuse why I haven't progressed much," puffed Sarutobi from his pipe, while the corners of his mouth turned slightly upwards.

"I thought so!" chuckled Jiraya and continued, "There are two matter that I would like to bring to your attention. Firstly, Land of Iron plans to raise prices of some metals…"

"Again?" frowned Sarutobi. "Lately they aren't doing anything else…"

"Yeah but the reason is obvious. Rumors that the Land of Water discovered several large deposits of various metals on the bottom of their sea appears to be true…"

"So it was confirmed… Is this information verified?"

"Yes from several independent sources. I am quite careful with information like this, hence the military check I conducted. Everything suggests that there is no hidden purpose."

"Good." _Such a concerns were seemingly little bit farfetched, but with similar information there was always a possibility that it was just misdirection. For example, in this situation there was a chance, that the raised prices of metals could reduce the amount of metals bought and by extension even the amount of available weapons in preparation for war. But that alone would be suspicious, therefore the information about metal deposits._

"But on to more important things," continued Jiraya in low voice. "There are rumors about a group of missing-nins under the name of Akatsuki…"

"That is nothing new, there are always groups of rogue ninjas, but I suppose that there have to be something more if you are mentioning them?" Sarutobi raised his right eyebrow and leaned forward.

"Yes, the problem is that, that this group is rumored to be formed only by S-ranked missing-nins."

"That's impossible," reacted immediately Sarutobi, "There were such groups before, but so many big egos could never exist together for a prolonged period of time," frowned Sarutobi. "But still, we should be careful. What else do you know about them?"

"That's the problem. I know nothing. I don't know how many missing-nins belongs to this group or where they are. And even less about their purpose. Because of that I plan to focus on this … Akatsuki group." recounted Jiraya with sigh.

"That sound reasonably. Do you have anything else?"

"Nothing urgent, you can go through it later," and with that Jiraya passed to Sarutobi quite big folder of papers.

"Good…" started Sarutobi and for a moment he look down on to the street down bellow window. "It seems that your six years old godson will be here in a moment. Will you stay?"

"Yes, I would like to see him. However introduce me…"

"Discretely … I understand," interrupted him Sarutobi and exactly in that moment the door flew open and into the room ran small blonde boy.

"Hi jiji," called Naruto and proceeded to nimbly jump onto Sarutobi's desk. "You will not believe what I learned!" cried the boy, excitedly bouncing on his feet.

"It's nice to see you again Naruto. It has been a long time since your last visit. And if I remember correctly, you promised to show me the reason, why I should give you my hat," smiled Sarutobi.

"That is why I am here!" responded Naruto now in a business like voice. "Watch!" and in that moment Naruto jumped from the desk high in the air, did half of a backflip, until his feet touched the ceiling. And stayed there like an overgrown bat. "So jiji, will you finally give me that hat?" asked Naruto importantly with arms crossed on his chest.

However Sarutobi didn't respond and instead stared at Naruto in surprise. The idea that a six year old child could learn tree climbing technique was impossible.

"Hey! jiji! Say something!" pouted Naruto, which seemed to finally woke him up.

"Who taught you that?" asked Sarutobi, noticing that Jiraya looked incredulously too.

"No one, that was all me…" however in that moment Naruto noticed the second person in the room and deftly walked above him and without further ado asked "Who is that?"

"This is Jiraya Naruto, shinobi of this village," introduced him Sarutobi and puffed from his pipe.

"Ok jiji. But if he bothers you too much, let me know and I will kick his ass!" continued Naruto confidently not noticing Sarutobi's hard coughing. He dropped down form ceiling and prodded impatiently "So, will you give me that hat?"

"You really impressed me Naruto, but unfortunately it's not enough…" chuckled Sarutobi, he wanted to continue and say that Naruto was too young, but was interrupted.

"Ok then, I can show you one more thing. It's totally cool!"

Yes, Naruto was many things, but one thing was sure. He didn't give up easily. "Ok Naruto, show me what you have got!"

"Ok! Here I go!" Naruto cried and closed his eyes in concentration. For a moment nothing happened, but then there was distortion of space around his body. Next moment everything was back to normal, except one thing. From Naruto's behind protruded at least two feet long dark orange furry tail."

"Cool! Right?" bounced Naruto on his feet exuberantly, not noticing impossibly white faces of two present man. Naruto turned to face the second man, flicking his tail to side so he could touch it. "And it is really soft! Really really sof…" In that moment something struck him in the back of his head and his world turned black.

There was a moment of total silence and then chalky white Jiraya asked Sarutobi, who carefully lowered unconscious Naruto on the desk. "What should we do?"

Silence. Then there was a quiet "Seal it… Seal it all."

A/N: Just want to say, that Naruto will NOT have any fox parts in the future.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Wake up from the nightmare and shed your fake skin**

**Four years later**

Naruto slowly walked towards his apartment. That alone was suspicious - at least in his case. And that was probably the reason why was he currently getting more hateful looks than usual. On the other hand it was possibly simply because he was just having more time to notice them. Normally he would run in his favorite orange jump suit and shout to everyone nearby: "I will became Hokage, you better believe it!" not paying much attention to his surroundings.

Naruto moaned and started massaging his temples. He had headache. No, that would be underestimation. If angry elephant stomped on his head for two whole days, he would be feeling probably better. In reality it was so bad, that he even considered visiting hospital, but dismissed that almost immediately. Last time he visited that place he left it more hurt than when he entered it. And so it was one of the reasons why he walked towards his apartment, even though he should be in the academy right now.

Naruto ignored another few scornful looks and pointing towards his person and clumsily climbed the stairs leading to his apartment. He somehow managed, not really realizing how, to enter his flat and to close it behind himself.

"Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!" he cursed feebly. The now transformed headache to full blown head-crushing pain was getting unbearable. "Idiot, I am an idiot!" he whimpered hopelessly. It was his own mistake. He should have visited the old man. And he should have done it a week ago when the headache was yet bearable. But then again how could he know, that it would became so serious. Hell! Even yesterday was the pain kind of ok. Annoying, but ok.

"Come on Naruto," he commanded to himself. "Go to old man, he will fix it somehow!" Unfortunately, in the next moment someone drove screwdriver trough his head. At least it felt like it. His vision darkened, knees buckled and stomach twisted itself inside out. So it was only logical that he vomited all over his not so clean floor.

"Fuck!" he cursed again, supporting his weight on now dirty elbows. It was only his luck to fell into his own vomit. He grabbed a nearby chair and tried to raise, only to have hammer brought upon his head.

...

His eyes shot open. He stayed still for a moment allowing his brain to recognize his apartment and floor on which he was currently lying. His left cheek was wet. It was then, that he took notice of the smell filling his kitchen. Smell of his own vomit. He scrambled quickly to his feet, cleaning his marinated left cheek, but instinctually slowed down as he recalled his headache. To his surprise it was gone. Not completely, but compared to previous experience it was practically nonexistent.

"That is weird." he thought, trying to recall the sensation. It would be underestimation to say that he was surprised to have a memory, which was not his own, brought before his eyes. "No, that's wrong," he thought as said memory settled itself back to its rightful place. He remembered. He remembered it with the same clarity as he could see his own apartment. He saw himself or his younger self visiting Hokage tower. He saw himself walking on a ceiling and recognized the man called Jiraya. Then he somehow brought to existence a tail and unlike his younger self he noticed their white faces and the utter horror settled on them. Then there was darkness.

But it seemed, that it was not all. There was more... much more. He watched himself walk through Konoha, as he found some scroll in trash behind academy and later study that scroll. He _remembered_ that scroll. It contained tree walking technique. He remembered how he trained it and how he _learned_ it!

"Where is that scroll now?" Naruto asked, not realizing that he said it aloud. And the memory came. He saw his younger self to hide it under the loose plank of his floor in his bedroom, which he found month ago to that of memory. So without thinking he went, no he ran, into his bedroom and practically ripped that plank from the floor. His heartbeat pounding furiously. There it was. In totally same state as he remember putting it in there. He picked it up and was about to open it, when he froze, his mind working furiously: "This is a proof of all this memories not being false. This is a proof that everything in my newly recalled part of life happened. And," Naruto almost stopped there, seeing where his thoughts were heading, but in the end it was futile. His mind did not want to obey and so he thought: "And it is the proof that the old man... no, Hokage-sama" his mind saying bitterly, "betrayed me... _He_ betrayed me!"

Naruto closed his eyes, feeling tears streaming down his face. He felt himself almost to turn around and run straight to the Hokage tower. But his brain seemed to be more faster than before. So he realized, that if he did that and demanded explanation, what guarantee he had that Sarutobi would not make his memory disappear again.

"I have to calm down!" he said to himself in frustration. "I have to calm down and think."

...

The first thing Naruto did after that was to clean up the dirty floor in front of him. However it didn't end there. He noticed that the floor was quite dirty even before his accident. And so he cleaned the floor everywhere. In kitchen-dining room, his bedroom and even bathroom. Then he moved on to getting rid of the dust, washing the dishes and changing his bedding. In the end he cleaned up his whole apartment.

"What the hell did I do?" was his first thought when he realized it." He frowned. "No. What the hell was I doing?" During his whole cleaning insanity he had urgent feeling of irritation. Irritation at the whole mess he had to clean. But why? Did that mean that it wasn't only his memories that disappeared, but part of his personality as well? He shook his head. "I have to find out what happened to me. But how?" he asked himself and to his surprise the answer came quickly and eagerly. "I have to find out how can someone erase or at least suppress memories." The problem was that the first person to whom he would normally go for help was probably the one who caused it. Naruto took a deep breath. It didn't matter. He _had_ to get answers. It was as if his whole being demanded them. And who was he to dispute himself. He just had to be clever about it.

Naruto took off the dirty orange jumpsuit and took a shower. Then somehow managed to find another one, which was clean. But when he saw his own reflection wearing it, he paled. It was absolutely horrible. He was actually surprised that he was not blinded by it. It then took him about one minute to gather every single one of these... atrocities and throw them out.

Problem was that he didn't own much else. And so he dressed the few wearable pieces of clothing he found, mainly in black, brown and gray colors and decided to go buy something. When he collected his trusty green frog wallet, with what little he managed to save, his mind surprised him again. It was actually weird. His mind seemed to work much faster. Before his recent headache experience, his mind worked slowly, almost sluggishly, especially when he tried to solve his academy homework. Now it was as if thick fog lifted from his thought process. Nonetheless he certainly wasn't going to complaint to anyone. And so he created - from little he had in kitchen - makeshift hair dye.

...

Naruto was really surprised. He already knew that the merchants sold him overpriced goods. Even his stupid and fashionably retarded old self managed to realize it. But only now he figured out how much less everything cost. At first he thought that someone would recognize him, but when even in third shop no one really showed any real interest in him, he calmed down. And so he bought few pieces from everything, mainly in dark or dark-ish colors. He didn't really care what color it had - as long as it wasn't anywhere close to orange. He simply figured that when he was studying academy, which in reality meant trying to become shinobi, he should avoid bright colors or really dark colors. If he wore utterly black jump suit in daylight, it would probably brought as much attention as the orange one.

Naruto even managed to bought few sets of new kunais and shurikens. Again appreciating their much lesser cost.

He ended his shopping trip by buying some groceries, including even some sushi, dango and ramen. He was hungry and so for once decided against being stingy. Tomorrow should be after all hard day. He had some things to find out.

...

Even dinner was surprise and shown Naruto that his quest for discovering means to mess with someone memories was even more important. He found out that even his taste has changed. Dango and sushi tasted better. Almost all vegetables and fruit changed more or less taste. He decided that he really didn't like artichoke. But at least one thing stayed same. Ramen. It seemed that it still would be his most favorite food. However what little improvement it brought to Naruto's mood, it didn't last long. These changing tastes showed Naruto once more, that his mind, brain or whatever part of his body was responsible, was really messed up.

...

The bell rang and cheers and shuffling feet followed. Naruto slightly smiled at the resigned look on Iruka's face. After all he was just now in a middle of a sentence on different types of thrown weapons a shinobi can expect to meet in battle. And for once Naruto listened. He still didn't take any notes or anything, - it seemed that it would be one of these static things - but at least he paid attention.

It didn't took long and the classroom was empty. Only he and Iruka remained. And so Naruto made his way towards the chunin.

"I have a question Iruka-sensei," started Naruto with questioning look and cringed. The suspicious look on Iruka's face wasn't good sign.

"Is this some sort of prank Naruto?" asked his teacher with narrowed eyes.

"No," Naruto shook his head. "I promise. Just a question," he raised his hand. It seemed to have effect because Iruka smiled.

"Ok, then ask."

"Thanks Iruka-sensei," nodded Naruto and proceeded with his problem: "If you knew that enemy shinobi learned some sensitive information and you had to make sure that he would not be able to spread it and killing him would not be an option, what would you do?" carefully watching Irukas reaction.

"Huh," that is some question chuckled Iruka in surprise. "But to answer your question. It would depend on what would I have in my disposal," he shrugged.

"Ok then Iruka-sensei, could you go through all options and I will tell you if that specific option would be available to you? It will be probably easier than the other way?" Naruto sheepishly scratched his neck.

Iruka chuckled again and smiled at him in patronizing way. "Ok I can do that. My first choice would be shinobi from Yamanaka clan. They have bloodline which allows them to manipulate minds. They can enter someone's mind and manipulate it to their will." Naruto frowned. He heard about Yamanaka clan before and if he remembered correctly, there was even one of them in academy right now. Not in his class, but there was one. And what is more, Hokage would certainly had authority to order Yamanaka clan to do something to him. If this was really what happened it would be real pain in the ass. He had absolutely no means how to force some Yamanaka to tell him what happened. Hi sighed. There was still hope that it would be something simpler.

"No, that is not possible Iruka sensei," he shook his head. "What next?" he asked.

"I suppose that it would be possible that healer, medic shinobi of master level would be able to do it. But I am not sure about that. And what is more, there is only one person of that level in entire Land of Fire - Tsunade of the sannin. So no, that isn't a solution," Iruka dismissed the idea with wave of his hand and continued: "Last option that I can think of would be the use of seals. But the problem with that is similar to previous one. You would need high level seal user to do that. I can think only about three shinobi up to that kind of work. Those would be the Hokage, Jiraiya of the Sannin and maybe Kakashi Hatake…"

"So I guess that practical would be only the first one?" interrupted him Naruto, seemingly disappointed, but in reality he was pleased. There was big chance that Yamanaka clan wasn't mixed up in the whole situation.

"Yes," Iruka agreed.

"Ok. Thanks Iruka-sensei!" called Naruto already on his way out of academy and witch chuckle ignoring Iruka's irritated call: "Hey! Naruto! What did you need it for?"

...

Naruto decided for now to ignore options number one and two. He couldn't do anything about them. At least not now, when he was only ten years old. And so he was on his way to library. His only worry was that someone would recognize him and kick him out due to his blonde hair. He had to clean it yesterday before going to bed. Partly because it smelled bad and partly because he didn't want to dirty his clean bedding. Naruto also figured that dyeing his hair would not be practical. It would probably brought lot of weird look from Iruka and Sarutobi. Instead he shortened his hair a little, only allowing something about two centimeters. And with that and absence of his orange jump suit, he looked kind of different.

Naruto entered shinobi library. It was open only to shinobi and students of shinobi academy and those had access only to gennin level books and scrolls. Naruto went immediately to gennin section, anything higher and you had to prove your identity, which would be an end to his little mission.

"So, where to start?" Naruto wondered, but it was decided for him. The library organization was trivial. There was only few section: General, History, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu. Unfortunately it seemed that the last section was the smallest one. It had contained only several scrolls and books. Naruto sighed a shook his head, he had no choice. So instead of pouting, he took several of them to the table and started searching for anything useful.

...

After two hours of slow reading he figured that learning Fuinjutsu was out of question. It was widely recognized as one of the most difficult disciplines known to the shinobi world. To get to level, where he would be able to mess with someone's mind would take probably at least decade of hard work, if not more. And so he decided to start searching in two main direction. The first one and also the most essential one: How to decide if there is an active seal on somebody. And the second: How to remove them.

That allowed him to skip some lengthy guides to calligraphy, description of several basic tags and similar thing, thanks to the fact that it was totally useless since it all worked only with paper-based seals. But even with this he found nothing that day. And since he had to sign something and prove his identity to borrow something he decided to skip academy a return tomorrow.

...

In the end it took him three days to discover that a basic seal should be visible always. And the rest became visible when chakra was channeled to the particular part of a body where the seal was. Hence why was Naruto currently alone in empty training area. He remembered from his tree walking training that channeling chakra could be quite explosive and because he didn't want to damage his apartment, he decided to approach it carefully.

Naruto stripped to his waist and tried to channel chakra to his left arm, just like he did during tree walking training. Nothing happened.

"What the hell?" Naruto frowned. It was almost as if there was a wall obstructing any chakra he wanted to channel. "Fuck it! I will break that wall if I have to!" he growled and tried again. This time however in proper concentration pose. And so his will crashed into that wall again, but this time he didn't stop. Instead he started increasing the amount of chakra channeled. Slowly and patiently he increased the pressure. At first there was only a puddle of chakra, then pond and lake. And the wall held. Naruto clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes, ignoring beads of sweat trickling down his body. He closed his eyes and called upon a sea and every other little bit of chakra he could muster. The wall crumbled and any obstruction disappeared. Naruto's eyes shot open. He looked upon his left arm and there was it. Two small seals marked his bicep, both ugly and black. And then he felt it, there was building of pressure in his left arm and one of the seals lighted up. There was a hiss and puff of smoke and the seal collapsed on to itself. Naruto quickly directed his arm away from his body only to be thrown several meters back as an insane amount of chakra poured from his palm. Raw and crude but still powerful.

Naruto slowly lifted himself from ground and looked and checked his left arm again. There was visible only one seal. "Bastards!" He gritted between his teeth. "They sealed even my chakra!" In that moment Naruto's anger rose in to staggering heights. But when it threatened to overwhelm him, bitter smile settled upon his lips. "I know who and what they did to me and I will return it to them ten folds. But before that I need to know why they did it to me. I need to know their reasoning," he thought. It was all nice to get revenge, but it would be kind of pointless if he would afterwards discover that there was reason grave enough to do something like this. Naruto sighed and unwillingly listened to his last thought. He needed to get rid of the rest of the seals on his body.

That day Naruto didn't do much more. He was exhausted. And so he at least copied the seal on his arm and proceeded to get back home. It took him almost whole week to remove chakra suppression seals from rest of his limbs and discovering that the other seal was designed to suppress physical strength and that it was possible to release with simple kai. He realized that the chakra suppression seals were probably put on him to prevent the discovery of the rest of the seals. So even seals so basic as the strength one weren't noticeable. Or at least it was part of the reason.

There was however another problem. During third day he discovered that he had one big and obviously complex seal on his stomach. And because he was majorly pissed off by then he tried to 'kai' it of his body without even learning what it did. And to his disappointment nothing happened. Even trying to overwhelm it with his chakra did nothing. That meant that it was probably ridiculously advanced work and to find something about it he needed advanced materials. But that wasn't possible right now. He didn't dare even think to sneaking into chunin or jonin sections. He would be probably caught and quickly ushered before Hokage, which was the last thing he needed right now.

So his current goal changed a little bit. He needed to become chunin and first step to do that was obtaining a genin rank. It took him only few minutes to find the little brochure he obtained when he has been accepted to academy. The part he was interested in were the requirements for final test. Normal graduation age from academy was eleven, which meant he had one and half years to meet them. He found out that the final test was composed from written test and practical test which included throwing of kunais and shurikens, taijutsu, stamina and demonstration of one ninjutsu. These were: kawarimi, henge and bunshin. So he had a lot to do.

...

The first thing Naruto decided to focus on was the techniques, because all of them were described in his academy textbook and they seemed quite easy to do. Unfortunately Naruto was unpleasantly surprised when he couldn't do a single one of them. It was thanks to his monstrous chakra capacity. It was very easy to figure out when whenever you channel chakra, you almost blast yourself to bits. So that meant he had to refine his chakra control. And what is more, it would be totally stupid not to utilize such advantage. To have high chakra control and simultaneously ridiculously high chakra reserves wasn't something to sneeze at.

For that purpose Naruto retrieved his scroll for tree climbing technique. And again was displeased. It was as if he never trained it. What followed was three weeks of hard three climbing training. Three was required partly because he had decided against skipping academy. There was after all written test required for graduation. And partly because he trained not only with his feet but included even his arms, palms and fingers, his back and even chest. As chakra training exercise Naruto found the basic version severely lacking. Refined chakra control in his in legs and feet didn't really help with ninjutsu and channeling chakra through hand-seals.

After that he successfully managed to use kawarimi and henge techniques and semi-successfully clone technique. His clones were… deficient to put it lightly and even the other two techniques were strained so much that they weren't really usable in middle of a fight. That resulted in need to even further improve his chakra control.

Again with the help of library, he managed to ascertain two new ways of chakra control. The first one was the water walking exercise, which was self explanatory and second was kunai balancing. If you managed to successfully complete said exercise, it would allow you to independently rotate and move several kunais above your palm. Or any other limb, Naruto decided. That certainly wasn't something that genin was supposed to know, Naruto realized. On the other hand it was probably so insubstantial thing that it slipped into genin library. And so he copied both of them into his slowly filling notebook.

Water walking proved to be similarly hard as tree walking. Of course that only applied if you finished tree climbing previously. Therefore another three weeks passed. After that, all three required techniques was quite easy to use. But even then he felt that there was significant room for improvement, mainly in chakra cost efficiency. He managed to use replacement technique somewhere around one hundred times before he exhausted his reserves, which was in Naruto's opinion quite bad for something so simple. And so he decided to proceeded with kunai balancing, but this time in long term fashion, because there were other thing to concentrate on. He assumed that he could make good progress with kunai balancing somewhere between four to six months.

...

Naruto's taijutsu was simply horrible. He knew at least that much. What is more he caught some of his teachers sabotaging it, when they taught him. And because taijutsu couldn't be self taught he needed new teacher. At first he wanted to ask Iruka for help, but realized, that in the village as big as Konoha, had to be at least several dojos available to public.

It took him few days to choose from available options, but in the end he decided for dojo where some guy called Guy instructed small kids. Actually Naruto was little older than most others, so he was little bit uncomfortable at first. That however changed very quickly. The Guy-sensei was little bit weird fellow. In reality he was so weird that Naruto was tempted to leave, but one thing made him to stay. That was the Guy's zealousness towards martial arts. If you showed him that you took martial arts seriously and was willing to work hard, he reciprocated it and he reciprocated it in the most intensive way possible.

Taijutsu wasn't something that could be speeded up. It took time and it took dedication, which Naruto showed four times a week with Guy supervising him. To save a little time, Naruto started skipping academy taijutsu lessons and instead worked on his kunai balancing. And so time passed. With Naruto's time filled with martial arts, academy and advanced chakra control exercise. During that time Naruto self celebrated his eleven birthday and moved to upper class in academy.

...

Naruto sat on branch of tree something around ten meters above the ground and rested his head on its trunk. In four months there would be graduation and Naruto realized that he could probably pass if he wanted. If he wanted. He didn't really like any of his classmates and he even less liked the vision to be with them in one team. He didn't know if it was them or him, but he liked to work and train alone. One day, in spur of a moment Naruto even looked in classes bellow him if there was someone more likeable. But he found only one person who didn't seem to spout nonsense all the time there. It was girl named Tenten and he found out - to his immense amusement - that she was obsessed with sharp and pointy things. He even managed to ask her on pointers how to properly throw kunais and shurikens. And in last few week he improved enough that he could hit bull's eye seven or eight times out of ten instead of five. So yes, his skills were in good shape, but he didn't really like his close future.

Right now Naruto was working his way through a book describing his career option as a chunin. He figured that if he didn't like genin options he should see what different options chunin had. So far he had been positively impressed. Once someone became a chunin he or she could stay on their previous genin team if rest of the team members weren't promoted. But usually that didn't happened because said chunin couldn't enter chunin exams with them. And so in similar cases were genin teams joined and reshuffled according to the Hokage's wishes.

Second option was to join some already existing team composed from chunins or even jonins or even compose his own team. Chunin rank was high enough that there normally wasn't need for jonin supervision. Such teams were created from minimum of three members to maximum of five. That being said, the most common was four just like genin teams. Such a teams took and completed mission in same fashion as genins.

Third option was same as for genins. Chunin could be apprenticed to shinobi of at least jonin level. And that shinobi had to have at least ten years of experience and three S ranked missions on his account. This was obviously the least used option.

Next option was to be drafted to ANBU corps, emphasis on word drafted. You had to impress ANBU members and they had to invite you.

The last option was, if you don't count the possibility to leave shinobi corps, to become hunter-nin. Such hunter-nin could work alone or in team of fellow hunter-nins and hunt missing-nins. Size of teams wasn't limited. Usually hunter-nins were jonins, but the possibility was there. Only limitation was, that if you wanted to hunt jonin-level or if you like an A-ranked missing-nin, you had to have on team at least three times as much chunins and every single member of team had to have completed at least three A-level missions. S-ranked shinobi were out of question. If there was shortage of rogue ninjas, then they could take on normal mission. But that was usually not the case and what is more, monetary rewards were usually quite large. Last bonus was that the hunter-nins operated independently on Hokage, or at least in most cases. Hokage had after all authority to order to all shinobi, even hunters.

Personally Naruto liked the last two options. However ANBU wasn't really an option. One couldn't set his goal on something that he had very limited means to affect. It could happened and it could not. So in the meantime Naruto decided to move his focus onto becoming a hunter-nin.

...

"Hey, Iruka-sensei," Naruto approached Iruka, this time in his office. "Do you have a minute?"

Iruka lifted his head from some papers and greeted: "Hello Naruto, what do you need?"

"I have a question."

"Again?" Iruka tilted his head.

"Um… yes?" Naruto like the last time scratched his neck. It wouldn't hurt to act little bit closer to his old self.

Iruka chuckled and sighed. "Ok. Ok. Go ahead," he prodded.

"Ok. This one I think is easier that the last one," Naruto grinned. "I want to know what you personally think - as a teacher, instructor and shinobi who already completed lots of missions - what is the most important think which genin should know but doesn't learn in academy."

"You thought a lot about that, didn't you?" Iruka smiled.

"What do you mean Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked honestly confused.

"You didn't got stuck or paused even once. So I think you had to really think about it," Iruka explained.

"Yes you are right Iruka-sensei," Naruto confirmed, shrugging.

"Ok Naruto," Iruka nodded. "And you were right too, I can answer this question very easily, because I thought about it on multiple occasions. I even tried to incorporate it to academy curriculum… and obviously didn't succeeded," Iruka chuckled and sighed. "So, what I think you and everybody should know and being thought is awareness about your surroundings. In the academy you are thought mainly how to fight, but nothing teaches you how to not let someone stab you in the back. How to avoid being ambushed and similar things," Iruka finished.

"Ok Iruka-sensei, you have good point. What would you then recommend to me to learn, so I can rectify that?" This time it was Naruto who tilted his head and smiled.

Iruka shook his head with smile and said: "Before I tell you that Naruto. Let me ask my own question."

"Ok," Naruto nodded.

"Why do you ask this?"

"I will tell you Iruka-sensei, but I want you to promise me, that it will stay secret," Naruto said after a moment of thinking. He could say him and if Iruka promised, there was no way that he would let anyone onto it. He was that kind of guy.

Iruka raised his eyebrows now highly intrigued. He then raised from his chair and closed window and door and then he said "I promise."

"Thanks Iruka-sensei," Naruto appreciated and then stated "I want to became hunter-nin and I want to do it while I am chunin."

Iruka's eye bulged. "Naruto, that's very dangerous job! And how do you even know about that?"

"I know it's dangerous Iruka-sensei," Naruto said solemnly. "And because of that I am here. I want to be prepared for it…You can prepare me for it," said Naruto and met Iruka's gaze. And Iruka held it.

"You mean it Naruto, don't you?" he sighed after moment.

"Yes." There wasn't anything else to add.

"Ok then, back to your question. There are three things I know of. The first one can be thought only by experience. After some time on mission you learn how the nature around you acts and reacts. For example you will learn how forest acts when there is no one and vice versa. You will learn how to sense a proximity of other living forms be it animal or human. If you became really good at it, you will learn even how to differentiate between them. But as I said, only experience will teach you that,"

"Ok, I understand," Naruto nodded.

"The second one is to train your senses other than eyesight," Iruka continued, now fully in his teacher mode. "Most noticeably you can train touch by limiting your eyesight. But most important are I would say hearing and smell. Smell is kind of hard to train. You just had to come to contact with lot of different aromas and learn how to react. So again it is learned by experience, but it can save your life. For example you can smell sweet of ninjas trying to ambush or detect poison in your food. Similar is hearing. You can hear kunai and dodge before it stabs you and similar things. That one can be trained quite effectively if you limit your eyesight."

"Ok, I will try that," Naruto agreed.

"The last one is sensor technique. It is composed of two hand-seals and allows you to detect object and chakra around you…,"

"Really?" Naruto said excitedly. "That would be cool."

"And it kind of is," Iruka nodded smiling. "But you need to train with it a lot to get used to it. The feedback from it is quite hard to understand at first, but the more you use it the easier it gets,"

"Um… Is there scroll for that technique?" Naruto asked.

"Yes I believe that in Konoha's library in chunin section is few of them," Iruka nodded and proceeded to offer: "I could pick it up for you so you can copy it. Would you like that?"

"Yes, that would be cool," nodded Naruto.

"Then come on, I just finished here so we can do that right now," Iruka pushed Naruto out of his office, locked it and then along with Naruto headed off to Konoha's library.

...

It was week since Naruto had obtained his new jutsu. It was quite easy to use. You simply had to make two required hand seals and then push a thin layer of chakra in all directions. Said chakra worked as extension of your body, providing feeling similar to that of touch. Another thing was, that chakra could step through solid object, but the cost for that was severely slowed and distorted feedback. But all that wasn't really important now.

The reason Naruto was right now on empty training ground was experimentation. Few hours ago he figured out that the sensor jutsu was basically the same thing as chakra control or more precisely just another chakra control exercise. The whole thing he did last several month was manipulating his chakra to move kunais. So why wouldn't he be able to manipulate it to act as said jutsu.

Naruto concentrated for a moment and created above his palm small sphere of chakra, then proceeded to push it and spread it to all directions. It worked. First object his chakra encountered was his body, thanks to which he got the distinct feel of living entity filled with chakra, differentiating from shinobi to shinobi. Next thing the chakra hit was the ground Naruto stood on. As the chakra spread more and more widely Naruto was getting more and more details of his surroundings. But as the chakra spread and became less dense the feedback became more vague. That however didn't really mattered to Naruto. He could use said jutsu much more efficiently now. For example he could scan just one direction or he could guide his chakra in such way that it would evade already discovered shinobi and so lessening the chance that he would reveal himself by stupid use of said technique. And so he trained. Not forgetting his lessons with Guy-sensei or occasional training with Tenten.

...

Naruto neared training ground twenty three. Some time ago he decided to visit all of them or at least those not restricted by rank. According to the small map of Konoha, which he copied in library, this one should contain small hill. It didn't matter really but every other training ground so far were flat areas with nothing or trees, occasionally some water.

Naruto released small spherical wave of chakra and sensed what surrounded him, while he continued his walk. He detected only few small animals. When he arrived at the foot of the said hill, which couldn't be higher than twenty meters. He released another wave. And to his surprise somewhere atop the elevation he sensed faint flow of someone's chakra. Naruto continued. He had prepared kunai just in case, but what could really happen to him here in center of Land of Fire.

It didn't take long and Naruto found a little bit younger boy then himself, lying there and watching sky. He had dark hairs pulled up in some sort of ponytail.

"Hi, what are you doing?" Naruto greeted the boy.

"Watching clouds," he shrugged.

"So you are lounging?" Naruto smirked. "What is your name? I am Naruto."

"Shikamaru Nara… but you can call me Shika... its shorter," the boy shrugged again.

"Nara… Nara… That seems familiar…"

"It's one of the Konoha's clan… troublesome," said Shikamaru.

"Ah, yes! You can manipulate shadows!" Naruto enthused.

"Yes…"

"Can you show me? Please?" Naruto pleaded.

"That would be troublesome, do I have to?" Shikamaru slowly turned his head for the first time from the start of conversation and looked at Naruto.

"I will certainly not force you," Naruto smirked and dropped next to Shikamaru.

"Ok…"

"Will you go away?"

"Nope."

"Troublesome… Why not?"

"I really, but really started to like it here," Naruto answered with wider and wider smile.

"…"

"I will have to demonstrate it, won't I?" Shikamaru looked at Naruto again and sighed.

"Of course not. I would never force you." The smile got even wider.

"Troublesome… Ok, I will show you," then he proceeded to do some hand-seals and his shadow jumped on Naruto.

"Try to move," prodded him Shikamaru.

"Whoa! This is cool," said Naruto in awe. Everywhere the shadow touched him, he was completely immobilized.

"It's troublesome," opposed Shikamaru and released it.

"You could say that about everything."

"Watching clouds isn't troublesome." Naruto sweated.

"Ok ok… Hey! I have a question. Is that power of yours manipulation of shadows or manipulation of darkness?"

"What do you mean?" asked Shikamaru confused.

"I just figured that shadows doesn't exist without light, right? So if you manipulated shadows you would be fucked if there wasn't any light. But if you manipulate darkness it should be ok. Got it?" explained Naruto excitedly.

"Hmm… troublesome. I don't know," responded Shikamaru with frown.

"How come?" Naruto's eyes widened comically.

"Never tried it," shrugged Shikamaru and Naruto facepalmed.

"Then try it when you get home today. In some underground room or something. I bet you have some in your clan compound," advised Naruto.

"Ok, but it is still troublesome," sighed Shikamaru.

...

"Ok Naruto, show me your bunshin technique. You will need to create at least three correct clones, all right?" asked Iruka.

"Got it." Naruto nodded, then proceeded to make three required hand-seals. Next moment there were three clones each of them exact copy of Iruka.

"Very nice Naruto," nodded Iruka and written something into his notepad. "But why didn't you say the name of the technique?"

Naruto frowned. "Is that required? Because if so, it is stupid," stated Naruto and crossed his arm on his chest with stubborn expression on his face.

"No, it isn't necessary, but what you did isn't something usual for genin," explained Iruka. "But back to you exam. You managed to get sixty five percent score in your written exam, seventy percent in taijutsu, seventy percent in throwing and one hundred percent in ninjutsu," Iruka said. Naruto frowned. Someone evidently sabotaged him again. His taijutsu wasn't best in the world but he worked really hard to get where he was. He expected to score somewhere around ninety percent. And in throwing at least eighty, he after all hit seventeen from twenty. Written score seemed all right, probably because it was Iruka who graded it.

"So your final result is seventy six percent and you ended up in fifth position in your class," Iruka said with smile, then throw him his headband and added: "Congratulation, you passed."

"Thanks Iruka-sensei," smiled Naruto. He decided to let the sabotage go. He passed so it didn't really mattered. What is more, there was even one positive to it - he will be underestimated.

A/N: English isn't my first language, so there will be mistakes.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: ****Train and when you get tired, train a little bit more**

Yesterday, the day after graduation all new genins were split up into a teams. And so Naruto currently lay under a tree in training area number three, waiting for his teammates. He had closed eyes, concentrating on his new experimental use of sensor jutsu. In the last year his chakra reserves significantly grow. He didn't know why, but they simply did. And because of that he was trying his sensor technique in a new way. Instead of sending one thin layer of chakra, he continuously released miniscule amount of chakra in all directions. The amount of chakra released was so small that he could maintain it probably several hours before he suffered chakra exhaustion. Thanks to that, he could obtain feedback from his surrounding in real time and what is more, it disabled the option that he would miss something. Of course, there was still problem with detecting what was underneath him, but that was a problem for another day. On the other hand the feedback was thanks to thinness of released chakra incredibly vague. But in Naruto's opinion was even then very beneficial. If maintained, it would be very hard to surprise him. Right now he could detect chakra to a distance somewhere around one hundred and forty meters. If said chakra was strong and dense, then even further.

Naruto sensed something. Behind his back, inside the forest appeared someone. The someone slowly moved toward the edge of forest and there stopped. Then disappeared. Naruto frowned. He was wrong, the chakra didn't disappeared, it just seemed that it simply weakened. It was then that Naruto understood. That someone had to suppress his chakra. Naruto could do it to some level too thanks to his good chakra control, but compared to this it was… he was bad. And that person probably didn't even try.

Naruto realized that it would be probably his jonin sensei. It was man named Hayate Gekko. Naruto didn't really know much about him, besides information in his copy of bingo book. And that was very sporadic. He was supposedly very good swordsman and could use some Crescent Moon attack or something.

Naruto sensed two closing chakras from the opposite side. His teammates arrived - one girl, one boy.

"Hi," he called and waved at them.

"Hi," reciprocated the girl and sat few meters from him. Naruto sighed, it seemed that his undeserved reputation preceded him. She had blonde hairs and black eyes. It was kind of weird combination, at least in Naruto's opinion.

"Hello," said the boy simultaneously with her and sat next to her, ruffled his black hair asked: "I suppose our sensei didn't arrived yet?"

Naruto smirked. He thought about hiding his skill, but decided against it. Team was supposed to know such things so they could work together efficiently. "He is hiding in the forest around twenty meters from here." Next moment he detected something small nearing towards his head. So he rolled to his side, now facing his teammates and pretending ignorance. Something struck the ground behind him. When Naruto looked, he saw blunted kunai. He smirked again.

Their sensei stepped from the forest. He was frowning.

"How did you know I was there and how did you dodge," he asked.

"Sensor jutsu," Naruto smiled innocently. That seemed to surprise his Sensei.

"That's impressive for someone so young," he nodded still frowning. It seemed he wanted to add something but Naruto interrupted him: "I modified it little bit... sort of… so I was able to dodge that."

"Ok… So everyone, you already know that my name is Hayate Gekko. I like swordsmanship and dislike useless showoff techniques and chronic coughing. There is probably more to say but… cough… " he shrugged and continued: "So, that's me and now you. Smartass here can start," he smirked at Naruto, who pouted.

"That's mean Hayate-sensei, but all right. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like training, especially chakra control exercises, ramen and few other things. I don't like artichoke, attitude of this village towards me and few other thing," he crossed arms on his chest with his head stubbornly held high. Others seemed to look a little bit uncomfortable.

"cough… cough… now the blonde," Hayate managed to say.

"Hi! I am Midori and I am orphan and don't have family name. I don't like people making fun of orphans and I don't like sweets. I like sour and bitter things and poisons," she reviewed while looking at the sky with hand behind her head.

"And the last one... cough..."

The boy nodded. "My name is Saburo, but you can call me Sabu. I am an orphan too. I prefer taijutsu and dislike pretty much everything else in terms of training. Till now I could eat everything without problem," he shrugged and turned to Hayate.

"Ok. So now when we know each other, is there something what would you like to ask me or your teammates?"

"Yes," nodded Midori sharply. "Naruto? Can I call you that?"

"Sure thing," waved Naruto lazily.

"Ok. So I would like to know why does the whole village hate you. I asked my parent's but they refused to tell me," she spread her arms dramatically and Hayate seemed to get especially harsh coughing fit.

"Right! Right," jumped Naruto pointing at nothing particular. "Exactly! I would like to know that too! Every single adult in this village knows, but not me! I bet even Hayate here knows!" he turned to his sensei with expectant look.

"Um…" started Saburo "I heard that Hokage created law that forbids to tell anyone. And if you do, you will be executed," he shrugged.

"What! And you know what is it about?"

"No," Saburo shook his head. "But it will be something pretty serious if such measures were created.

Naruto massaged his temples. "Fuck my life," he sighed.

"Um..." started Hayate. "Naruto… I am sorry but Saburo is right. Only person in the whole village who has authority to tell you is Hokage. You will have to take it up with him," he shrugged.

"I got it," said Naruto and then proceeded to mutter something about old geezers. His other three companions seemed to redden very fast after that.

"So," started Hayate again after a moment. "Normally each jounin gives his genin team test to see if they are really ready. This basically tests whatever said jonin think is important. But I don't like it. If you don't know something, then you can learn it. For example some jonins test teamwork, but I think that sending team back just for that is stupid because it can be learned. Another example is that some jonins test willingness to work hard, but again even that can be trained. Maybe not easily but it can," he smiled mysteriously and continued: "But back to said test. Instead of that I will individually test your skills because I don't really trust academy to do their job correctly. If you all pass then you will became my genins. And I am telling you right now, that I will work you in to the ground. Got it?" They nodded.

"I asked if you got it. And if I ask you something I expect you to answer. And for that matter you will call me Hayate-sensei, is that clear?" His voice dangerously lowered.

They gulped. "Yes Hayate-sensei!"

"Good. So to the first order of business," he pulled out of somewhere sealing scroll and unsealed it's content. "This," he waved to the ground is your new genin uniform. "Each of you gets three sets - of course only if you pass - and I expect you to wear it. Only thing you get to choose on your own are boots. You can wear opened shinobi sandals or standard shinobi boots. I prefer the second option," he pointed to his feet. As you can see they are closed." He looked at them.

"Um… yes Hayate-sensei!" they chorused.

"Good. So now comes the examination of you skills."

...

They passed. After Hayate-sensei tested if their academy skills was ok, he confirmed that they passed and proceeded to have training spar with each of them. That hurt a lot.

Naruto's and Saburo's taijutsu was on similar level, but unlike Naruto, Saburo had obvious talent for it. Naruto suspected that it was only thanks to Guy's lessons that he could match his teammate. If Saburo trained with him, he would probably became very strong very quickly.

Midori was weaker than them in regard of taijutsu, but then proceeded to show her dominance in throwing, when she without any sign of trouble hit everything.

Spars went in Naruto's opinion quite good, but he couldn't really judge it himself.

...

It was seven in the morning and Naruto headed toward their designated training ground. He wore his new genin uniform completed with standard shinobi boots instead of sandals. Wet areas won't be a problem anymore he thought.

Somewhere along the way his teammates joined him and so they were currently chatting.

"Hey Saburo, I could show you where I trained taijutsu," Naruto offered.

"What do you mean? You didn't trained in academy?" Saburo frowned.

"No, I trained in dojo for public. They don't really like shinobi there so you would have to redress a little, but I think that the Guy-sensei could really help you. Unlike me you have a talent for it," Naruto shrugged.

"I would like that," Saburo nodded.

...

"So now, when you finally at least look like a proper genins, we can start training," Hayate started immediately after he arrived. "The main purpose of genin is to training for chunin exams which are held every six months and each time in different elemental nation. I will set a limit of skill each of you will have to accomplish. Only then I will consider to signing you up for them. Got it?"

"Yes Hayate-sensei!"

"Good. So I want you to know and be able to use in middle of fight several jutsus. The three academy ones you already know, and to that you will add shunshin technique. Normal version requires one seal, but I want you to be able to use it without it. The same thing goes for kawarimi. It is necessary skill if you want to use these efficiently, understood?"

"Yes Hayate-sensei!"

"Next thing is chakra control. All of you will be able to do tree climbing and water walking and you will be able to do it while fighting. Next you will learn how to dispel genjutsu and after that, each of you will learn clone technique particular to their elemental affinity."

"Another thing are missions. Every genin is required to complete twenty five D-ranked missions before the team can do C-ranked or participate in chunin exams. Understood?"

"Yes Hayte-sensei!"

"And between all this, you will be improving your taijutsu. Every shinobi should know this all and be very good at it. If you want to train something else, do it in your spare time or after you learn everything I want you to. After that I will very gladly help you with your personal specialization."

"Yes Hayate-sensei!"

"Good. From now on we will do every other day one D-ranked mission. And between that train, train and train," then he proceeded to do several seals and created some type of clone.

"This is Shadow Clone technique, it is forbidden jutsu and Hokage personally have to allow you to learn it. It has many benefits but to that twice as much limitations. The main benefits is that it is perfect copy of you, therefore I will be occasionally using it to train you in separate groups. Right now Midori and Saburo will go train with my shadow clone their chakra control and because Naruto is far more advanced in it I will start teaching him shunshin and how to manage to do it without seals.

"Yes Hayate-sensei," they again chorused. Then Naruto's teammates was led by their sensei's doppelganger somewhere else.

"Ok Naruto. This is how shunshin looks like," Hayate said and the next moment appeared several meters away from his position, while on his starting position appeared cloud of green leafs.

"That's cool and should be really useful," Naruto nodded.

"It is. Show me if you can do it."

"Yes Hayate-sensei." Naruto did required seal and channeled his now obedient chakra. He felt rush of chakra and then he was swarmed with leafs. When everything settled he was still on the same spot.

Hayate chuckled. "You did typical mistake. During the channeling you need to focus and actually move towards the spot where you want to appear." Naruto nodded and repeated whole process. He felt again the rush of chakra, so he moved. It was simply incredibly speeded up movement thanks to chakra he channeled through the required seal. Naruto reappeared next Hayate.

"Very good Naruto. As you probably guessed, the ram seal channeled your chakra from your chakra network to your whole body. Increasing shortly it's physical attributes so you can move more quickly. Problem is that the movement is so quick that it cannot be really coordinated, or at least not by normal means. That means that you can use it only to move in straight lines. Got it?"

"I understand Hayate-sensei," Naruto nodded.

"Good. I want you to train with it a lot, but before that I will explain you, how to use it in seal-less fashion and the theory behind it so you can apply it to kawarimi and other techniques," Hayate paused for a moment and then continue: "I will need a water surface to explain so follow me. You can only use shunshin.

"Got it Hayate-sensei," Naruto nodded already creating the ram seal.

...

"Do you see that pond Naruto?" asked Hayate.

"Um… yes," said Naruto, for a moment forgetting to answer properly. After so much shunshins in so rapid succession he was quite disorientated.

"You will get used to it after a while," smirked Hayate. "But back to the theory. Imagine that this pond is your body and this stone," Hayate showed him small pebble. "Is the channeled seal. Every channeling of seal gives your body some type of feedback. Similar to this." Naruto's sensei then throw the pebble into the pond, creating a circular ripples on its surface in the process.

"So far with me?"

"Yes sensei," Naruto nodded.

"So this ripples are the feedback and to be able to do a jutsu without seals you need to recreate this, only using your chakra control…"

"That is like with my sensor jutsu!" Naruto realised.

Hayate raised an eyebrow. "Explain."

"Um... I can use the sensor jutsu without seals. I can recreate the effect of said jutsu with only my chakra control. Thanks to that I was even able to modified it! Instead of one layer I release continuously chakra, hence I was able to dodge you kunai."

"I see. Yes you did something similar but there is one main difference. The sensor jutsu has a lot of... freedom in this aspect. But for other techniques you will need to do it exactly the same way."

"I got it sensei." Naruto nodded.

"Ok, so what I showed you works for one seal jutsus. But for example three seal would be much more complex. Imagine that first seal will result into circular ripples, second into triangular ripples and third into square ripples. Can you imagine what would be result be if you put them all together?"

"Not really," shook Naruto his head. "It would be something really complex."

"Exactly. And you need to realize that feedback of the seals aren't just simple geometrical objects. Their effect on the body is very complex and practically anything what is composed from more than three seals is not possible to use without them."

"So that means that it isn't really our chakra control what limits us, even if it is incredibly important for use of jutsus without seals. It is our natural inability to comprehend the joined feedback of high amount of seals?" Naruto scratched his neck in frown.

"Very impressive Naruto. That is exactly it. Kawarimi needs two seals so that means that to recreate the exact effect of it will be harder than with the shunshin. I cannot really help you with the training itself because it is highly dependent on your understanding and feeling of chakra control, which is different for every shinobi."

"Yes Hayate-sensei," Naruto nodded.

...

And so they trained. It became very soon their normal routine. Get up, do physical exercise and spar for hour or two. Then depending on the day, they took some disgusting D-rank mission or worked on their chakra training or seal-less techniques. For Naruto it was mainly the second one. When he had time he along with Saburo and to their surprise even Midori visited Guy-sensei. It didn't took long and Saburo became the best taijutsu user in their team, while Naruto leaded in chakra control and seal-less techniques. And Midori assumed the position of their ranged poisonous support.

After two months they moved to spar on water surface or playing tag only with shunshin and kawarimi, which Naruto clearly dominated even thought his teammates teamed up on him. He became so good with shunshin that he could even modulate the amount of leafs left behind him. And he thought that it was only logical that burring his teammates in leafs became his new favorite pastime. Similar thing Naruto managed to accomplish with Kawarimi. He could change the size of object he switched with. Normal use required something of similar mass as his body, but he could increase or decrease that amount if he compensated the difference with his chakra.

When they became too tired to move, they worked on dispelling genjutsu, which was in Naruto opinion quite trivial.

During that period of time Naruto gained another year on his belt and was now twelve years old.

...

"Aaargh!" Naruto cried and shot up in his bed looking frantically where he was. It took him several moment to calm down, while muttering. "It was only dream. Just stupid dream!" Naruto stood up and got rid of his in sweat drenched pajama, intending to take a shower.

Lately he had these nightmares more often. All of them similar. He always was in Hokage's tower, pinned to the large mahogany table. While Sarutobi and Jiraiya placed on him one evil seal after another and the whole time laughing evilly. Naruto hated it. He hated to feel helpless.

After shower Naruto had breakfast. Their sensei gave them two days to rest and Naruto intended to visit Shikamaru. They didn't meet very often, primarily because Naruto was really busy. And so he wanted to remedy that.

Naruto neared the hill where he met Shikamaru the first time. It was just a little after academy normally ended and so he figured that Shikamaru could be there. He after all liked to stay away from his nagging mother as much as possible.

Naruto was right. He had felt Shikamaru's now already familiar presence from quite a long distance.

"Hi," he greeted.

"Hi," Shikamaru responded.

"So how is academy?" Naruto asked.

"Troublesome."

"Why I even ask," Naruto chuckled.

"So Shikamaru, now that you know that you manipulate darkness and not shadows I have got an idea," started Naruto.

"What is it?" asked Shikamaru slightly intrigued. Naruto almost never said stupid things.

"That shadow of yours has physical manifestation if it can hold me, right?" Shikamaru nodded. "So I figured that it should be possible to use it as an armor too. For example if I was about to stab you in your arm, you could move that shadow to that place and stop it or at least slow it. And if you wear long sleeves, there will always be some level of darkness on your body," Naruto finished.

"That should be possible," Shikamaru agreed but added: "But I am concerned about the chakra consumption."

"That could be problem but to me it seems the same as holding me in place. For that you need chakra too and it should be irrelevant if you focus on whole body or one point such as the tip of the kunai. In the end it should be equal."

"Yes, that's true but I meant it more along the lines: That if I start spending chakra on this, then I won't have enough for catching anyone. It would be practical only as a failsafe measure. Not something that should be used daily.

"You have a point," sighed Naruto. "I always forget that not everyone have so much chakra like me."

"Do you want to get something to eat?" asked Shikamaru.

"Sure," shrugged Naruto.

"Then follow me," said Shikamaru and got up.

...

"Um... Shika, where are we going?" asked Naruto. He didn't know this part of Konoha very well.

"You will see in a moment, we are almost there."

"Ok…"

It didn't take long and they come to large house. No, it wasn't one but several houses and by the look of things, the owners were quite wealthy.

"We are here. Welcome to the Nara clan compound," Shikamaru smirked.

"Um… Shika… I don't think that this is good idea," said Naruto and tried to move away from the gate, but couldn't.

"Shadow possession success," smirked Shikamaru and without waiting entered. Naruto unwillingly following him.

"Shika! Let me go!" pleaded Naruto. If some clan accused him of entering their property, he would be in real deep shit.

"Sorry, but every time I tried to invite you, you somehow managed to sneak away. So I had to trick you," he smirked again.

"Shikamaru…"

"I noticed that most people don't like you, I am not blind you know. So I want to know what my family has to say about you," he shrugged. "And don't worry, you are under my protecting while you are here."

"Ok," sighed Naruto. He could probably in few minutes overpower Shikamaru, but then they would be already inside. "But you are still a sneaky bastard!" he pouted.

"Thank you," smirked Shika.

"Fuck you!" groused Naruto.

Shikamaru entered one of the buildings and led him through several room until they come across enclosed garden and then proceeded across it to some sort of dining room.

"Sit," Shikamaru offered, pointing to some comfy looking chair and table on the other side of the room.

"Shika, is it you?" called feminine voice from somewhere. Naruto almost used his sensor technique, but stopped himself. That would be probably quite rude.

"Yes mum. I have friend with me," he responded.

After few moment a women with dark brown hair and brown eye entered the room.

"Mum this is Naruto. Naruto this is my mother Yoshino Nara," Shikamaru introduced them in quite formal manner and then took one of the chairs next to Naruto.

"Hello Nara-san," greeted Naruto uncomfortably. He didn't really know how to properly act or talk.

"Hello Naruto," she nodded. "Do you have a second name? The name seems familiar to me," she asked.

"Um... " Naruto paused, thinking up name, but Shikamaru didn't gave him a chance to.

"It's Uzumaki. Naruto Uzumaki," he said. And just like that Shikamaru's mother pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.

"You see Shikamaru? I told you that it isn't good idea!" Naruto said and scrambled to his feet. I will just leave, I don't want any troubles," he bitted out in frustration.

"Why would you react like that Uzumaki Naruto?" asked Yoshino with tilted head curiously.

"You ask?" Naruto snapped. "All of you have some convoluted reasons why you don't like me! I would really appreciate if someone fucking finally told them to me!" and with that he turned only to bump into someone. It was man and if Naruto wasn't blind he was older copy of Shikamaru.

"Hello Uzumaki Naruto," he smirked. "I am Shikaku Nara, Shikamaru's father and head of Nara clan."

"Um… I am sorry Nara-san, I was just leaving…" Naruto cringed.

"Dad, could you stop scaring Naruto? I invited him for some lunch, not for you to torment him" Shikamaru drawled.

"Sit down Uzumaki and calm down," said Shikaku. "We cannot tell you anything, there…"

"I know about the stupid law," groused Naruto with his arms crossed.

Shikaku raised his eyebrows. "Interesting."

...

When Naruto left, Shikaku Nara sighed.

"He needs to be told," said his wife. "I don't want to see that frustration and anger turn into something much worse."

"Yes… Yes he needs to be told. But you know Sarutobi, he will not listen. Only chance would be to bring it up on council meeting and outvote him," Shikaku thought aloud.

"The next council meeting is in one week. We shall prepare for it," nodded Yoshino.

"I will contact Inoichi and Choza… Troublesome."

...

"Do we have anything else to discuss?" asked Sarutobi, looking through his paper.

"There is one thing," said Shikaku.

"Go ahead."

"I would like to bring up the matter of Uzumaki Naruto."

Sarutobi tensed. "What is with him. Did something happened?"

"No, nothing like that," shook Shikaku his head and continued: "He needs to be told what he contains."

Sarutobi and Danzo draw in a sharp breath. Each of them for different reason.

"No. He is far too young…"

"I do not agree with you Hokage-sama," interrupted him Shikaku. "He is already genin. And he could be any time signed up for chunin exams. And you know that sending a jinchuriki into another land without permission of its Hokage is forbidden. It is practically a declaration of war. And even if you had said permission, then sending Naruto away without knowledge what he contains is as asking for disaster to happen."

"He could try to compete in chunin exams held in Konoha," tried Sarutobi.

"And when he will not get promoted? You will make him and his whole team wait for another two years? Or you will separate them?"

"No, of course not," managed Sarutobi. He wasn't prepared for this to arise and all of Shikaku's arguments were unfortunately valid.

"Ok, but this brings another question. Where did you planned to tell him?"

"When I would deem him appropriately mature." Sarutobi said.

"You know, I met Naruto a week ago. My son Shikamaru befriended him and brought him into Nara clan compound. And let me tell you that Naruto is very smart young man. Quite mature too…"

"I am glad to hear that," smiled Sarutobi.

"But there is one problem. He harbors strong dislike for you,"

"What do you mean?" Sarutobi frowned, this certainly wasn't good sign in jinchuriki.

"He appears to be aware of the law you created and knows that you are the one who keeps him in the dark. I will quote him, verbatim: All of you have some convoluted reasons why you don't like me! I would really appreciate if someone fucking finally told them to me!"

"There was gasps around the table," even thought Shikaku Nara contacted his friend and asked them for support he didn't describe the situation in so much details.

"Hahaha," laughed Tsume. "I am surprised that we didn't hear something sooner. I met him personally a few times in the town when he was still in academy and wore that disgusting orange thing. To put it lightly, the civilians did not liked him one bit. It's no wonder that Uzumaki is fed up with it. I agree with Shikaku. He needs to know."

"I think that there is nothing left to be said. Lets vote," said Hiashi and raised his arm. "I vote for telling him.

"Me too."

"Same."

"Seconded."

"Tell him."

"Agreed."

"There is no need to vote anymore. Result is clear. Uzumaki Naruto will be informed of his status," said Danzo smirking. He didn't gained anything really. But for once he agreed with others, informed jinchuriki was better than the other option. He turned to the corner "Neko, immediately bring Uzumaki Naruto." The next moment said ANBU disappeared.

Sarutobi sighed. He really didn't expected this to happen, but maybe it was better this way. Shikaku brought up valid reasons and even thought he wanted protect Naruto, village was more important.

...

"So," started Hayate as usual. "You have completed what I assigned you. Only part which remains to be addressed are the elemental clones. The clone you know from academy are woefully weak and they aren't really usable. Hence the elemental clones, which are strengthened with elemental chakra. Understood?" Hayate finished.

"Yes Hayate-sensei!"

"Good. I have brought several chakra sensitive papers," Hayate passed two to each of them. "The papers with small number one in their corner will identify your primary or if you want your strongest elemental affinity. The papers with number two will identify the second strongest element your body is attuned to, they are designed in such way as to ignore your primary element. Got it?" he asked.

"Yes sensei!"

"Ok. You first Midori." Said girl nodded and channeled her chakra to the first paper. It burned. The second one liquefied.

"Fire and water. These are quite common in Konoha but certainly not together. In reality, I don't think there is anyone with the same combination." said Hayate. "Naruto now you."

Said blonde channeled his chakra to the first paper. It was shredded. The second one turned to stone.

"Wind and Earth. The wind seemed especially powerful. The combination is well balanced. Offensive and defensive element. And wind is quite rare around here. Saburo."

Saburo was quite surprised when both his papers turned to stone.

"Earth affinity. Do not be discouraged that you have only one affinity. So…"

"I have question sensei," said Naruto.

"Yes?"

"Does Midori have bloodline? Water and fire should give steam, shouldn't it?"

"Good question. Midori may and may not have bloodline. She can certainly create steam but what is important is how. If she creates steam while using two different techniques, then it's called collaboration technique and it is not bloodline. True bloodline acts as completely new element. That means that Midori here would be able to create steam by using some steam technique. The problem with that is, that there aren't much known steam techniques. I would recommend to you Midori to ask Hokage if there are some steam jutsus in archives, so you can test if you have bloodline or not."

"Yes and thank you Hayate-sensei, I will do so," she nodded.

"Ok, but do so only after you will be able to use both affinities separately. I suspect it will take one year to be able to use both clones, after all to wake up an affinity from its dormant state isn't easy. That goes for Naruto too. And word of advice for the future. Do not talk about it. Bloodline users are highly sought out. We do not want Midori to be kidnapped or something. Understood?"

"Yes Hayate-sensei!"

"Good. Here are scrolls that describes how to wake up your affinities. And scrolls for your clone techniques. If someone will have troubles then come to me and I will try to help you. I have fire and earth affinity so I will be able to help each of you with one. But I want you to try to figure it on your own first."

"Yes Hayate-sensei!" Next moment masked ANBU appeared few meters away from them.

"What do you need Neko?" asked Hayate.

"Uzumaki Naruto was summoned before shinobi council of Konoha. Immediately." stated ANBU, obviously a women.

Everyone looked at Naruto. He gulped and asked stupidly: "Which way?" Instead of answering, he was grabbed and shunshined away.

"She was scary," said Midori.

"Yeah," agreed Saburo.

"You don't know even half of it," chuckled Hayate.

...

Naruto was unceremoniously dropped to the ground and had lot to do not to fall. In the end, only his tree walking saved him.

"Naruto," it's nice to see you again, greeted him Sarutobi.

"Hokage-sama," Naruto slightly bowed. Then checked others. "Nara-san," he bowed to him as well, not really knowing protocol.

"Neko-san said I was summoned?" he asked.

"Yes you was," answered Danzo. "This council decided that you will be informed... about your status."

"Um... I don't understand?" asked Naruto confused.

"The reason why you are despised," continued Danzo. Naruto looked at Hokage, but Sarutobi wasn't looking at him. Instead he seemed to read some papers.

"Stop this Danzo," growled some dark haired woman. "Uzumaki, I am Tsume Inuzuka, head of the Inuzuka clan. And you was summoned so we could inform you that you are jinchuriki." Naruto wanted to ask what jinchuriki was but was halted when she raised her hand. "Are you aware that twelve year ago, one of the tailed demons attacked this village?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes, the nine-tailed fox. Yondaime Hokage killed it."

"That's not true. Tailed beasts or demons if you like, cannot be killed. They are immortal. Only way to stop them is to seal them away," Naruto paled. He started to understand where this was leading. "Yondaime didn't killed it but sealed it into newborn baby. That was you," Tsume said, confirming his fears.

"And… And because I contain something that annihilated half of this village, the second half hates me for it," Naruto croaked.

"Yes, that is precisely it," Tsume nodded with soft expression. After all Naruto was just a puppy who needed a hug.

"Alright," he managed to say. "Can I leave?"

"Yes, you can Naruto. But if you want talk about it, do not hesitate to came to me," said Sarutobi. Naruto reluctantly nodded and turned to leave, but stopped: "Where is the seal which holds Kyubi?"

"On your stomach," answered Sarutobi.

"Ok," said Naruto and left.

...

Naruto returned to the training ground. He pulled his earth affinity scroll with intention to study it when someone plucked it out of his hand.

"What are you doing Hayate-sensei?" asked Naruto.

"I want to know what happend," shrugged Hayate.

"Nothing much, they just told me that I am jinchuriki. Can I have my scroll back now?"

"No. I think that you need sit down and think about it," shook Hayate his head.

"But I am alright! I contain a demon, so what?" Naruto cried. Then was punched into the jaw so hard, that his vision blackened and he had to really try to stay conscious.

"You are not alright. If you were alright then I would never be able to surprise you and take this scroll away from you. You use that sensor jutsu of yours practically all the time! So if you are done whining, then I want you to sit down and think carefully about it. You are excused from training for today and you can pick this scroll tomorrow. Got it?" Hayate snapped.

"Yes sensei," sighed Naruto. He didn't feel like moving, so he stayed on the ground and just rolled on his back. It seemed like good opportunity to watch clouds. He sighed again. So he contained the strongest of the tailed demons. What does that meant? Yondaime put that seal on his stomach when he was just a baby. So… that meant that it wasn't Sarutobi or Jiraiya who put that seal on his stomach. And that meant, that he didn't really needed to get into chunin section of library, because he certainly didn't plan to release the demon. Naruto froze. He tried to release it with simple kai and didn't succeeded, but that wasn't really relevant. He almost annihilated the whole village just because Hokage didn't tell him. Naruto laughed. It was probably pretty hysterical laugh, but he didn't care. And so he laughed long and hard. And when he calmed down he had to start again because he heard:

"Sensei I think that Naruto lost it!"

When Naruto finally calmed down, he didn't move. Yes he felt better now but there was something missing. And then he understood. He understood why Hokage and that man Jiraiya put those seals on him. They were afraid that he would turn into Kyubi or that he would release it. So yes, he understood, but why would they put on him these mind alteration jutsus? They did it probably just because they were afraid or something. Naruto thought about it more but could not bring himself to forgive them. Yes he could forgive that they sealed his muscles and chakra. He could understood that. But his mind was something… sacred to him, something untouchable. And they just came and invaded it. No, he couldn't forgive that. He could never forgive that. At least they could try explaining it to him, that he had to be careful and not alter his body. Naruto sighed and stood up. The situation was better than before. He didn't needed anymore to research boring fuinjutsu. And there remained just one more thing on that list. Hokage and that Jiraiya had to pay for what they did. He didn't knew how or when but they would. Naruto took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Yes, life was good.

A/N:  
1.) I changed number of seals required for kawarimi from five to two so it wouldn't clash with my theory ;)  
2.) I kind of forgot on Hayate's coughing. Truth to be told it is really annoying to write it.  
3.) Thanks for reviews. I will not react to them, but I will read them all.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Afterlife**

**Six months later**

Naruto leaned back, dodging a punch aimed to his temple. He jumped back while throwing several vicious kunais to Hayate's face. His sensei deflected them and closed on him again, only to met empty spot when Naruto swapped places with one of the kunais. Hayate was saved from getting stabbed in the back only by ridiculously fast sword parry. Next moment Naruto disappeared in thick cloud of leaves. Without thinking Hayate switched places with nearby trunk, only to see it almost shredded with several shurikens. Hayate sweated. These sparing lessons with Naruto were getting very dangerous. Naruto tore through the still falling leaves and closed on him. Only to be met with Hayate's quick sword. Hayate realized his mistake too late. Two hand tore from the ground and pulled him down, only leaving his head above ground level. The Naruto, which got stabbed with sword, slowly crumbling. Hayate sighed and dispelled himself. He could get out, he knew the jutsu, but it was late and he was tired.

The real Hayate stepped into the spar area. "That was good Naruto. Your style of fighting is very annoying to deal with. What is more it will be quite chaotic for someone knew," he said approvingly.

"Thanks sensei," smiled Naruto slightly.

"But word of advice. That last jutsu which you somehow managed to learn in your already full schedule," Hayate narrowed his eyes, but continued: "Is good, but do not use it against earth users. I could free myself quite easily. Your only option in such case is to kill him or something along those lines. Got it?"

"Yes sensei. I knew that already," Naruto shrugged with sigh.

"What is the matter Naruto? Normally you are much more… energetic?" Hayate asked.

"It's just that I don't really know how to bring the fight to you. Not just you, but even Saburo. He is already several miles ahead of me in terms of taijutsu, so I have to depend on throwing, clones and such things. I know I am kind of good in taijutsu for my age, but that's it. I will not get much better in it. In last few months I hit a wall and my taijutsu is stagnating," Naruto shrugged.

"Then drop it," said Hayate.

"What?" exclaimed Naruto, his eyes bulging.

"Not everyone can be good in taijutsu. Even I am not that good at it and that is why I picked up swordsmanship. And for that matter you could try it too. It would be something I would be really able to help you with," Hayate offered.

Naruto seemed to think for moment and then smiled. "I would like that, thanks sensei."

"Then it's decided. We will start tomorrow."

...

"Do you know what this is?" asked Hayate his students.

"A mission scroll?" asked Saburo.

"C-rank?" tried Naruto hopefully.

"Correct," smiled Hayate. "I think you are finally ready for them. So from now on, we will take one C-ranked mission every one or two weeks, depending on how long each will take."

"It was about time," said Saburo.

"Finally something else than D-rank," added Naruto and clasped his hand in theatrical prayer.

"Yeah," finished Midori while polishing her nails.

"All right you lot. Stop being melodramatic and move. This mission will take two days and that only if we move quickly.

"What is our objective?" asked Midori.

"We have to deliver a payment to a small town up north. We should be able to reach it tonight and complete our mission. And the next day we will return."

"That seems really easy," said Naruto.

"Yes it could be, but according to the information we got, they have problems with bandits in that area."

"Ok, then let's go!" said Naruto and moved. Others following him.

...

They already ran for several hours when Naruto sensed proximity of other humans.

"There is someone before us," he signaled with his fingers.

"Where are they?" signaled Hayate back.

"About two hundred meters ahead. They are hiding inside the forest on the right hand side of the road," Naruto answered.

"We will circumvent them. Naruto, keep some distance between us and them," Hayate signaled back.

Naruto nodded and took up to the trees on the left side of the road.

...

When they was a good distance away Naruto asked: "Why didn't we confront them?"

"Because it isn't our objective. Everyone, listen very carefully. Mission objective is always more important than other options. If you want to do something more, then first complete mission objective and only then focus on another thing. Only situations in which this rule is questionable are life and death problems. For example, If you had to choice from two options: To complete a mission or to save live of your teammates. So for example in this mission would be reasonable to save life of your teammates, because this mission is not really important. But there will be missions in which results are much more important and you will be required to accomplish them at any cost. Even if it meant to sacrifice everyone on your team. And it will be you, who will have to decide what is more important."

"Ok sensei," they chorused.

"Brats. Didn't I tell you, how to properly call me?" asked Hayate in annoyance.

They smirked. "You did, sensei."

"Brats, do not provoke me!" tried Hayate, but in reality he wasn't really angry. Those brats grew on him.

"How do we provoke you, sensei?" Chuckling followed.

...

Naruto woke up with a yawn, then opened his eyes. Saburo stood above him.

"You always woke up when someone is close. How do you do that?" asked Saburo.

"I don't know really. I think its side effect of the usage of my sensor technique," shrugged Naruto and got up.

"I already woke up others," said Saburo.

"Ok," nodded Naruto and started packing his military sleeping bag.

They already finished their mission and received payment for it. But when they described their encounter with likely bandits, mayor of the small village called Aribu, hired them for their second C-rank mission. Their objective was to track the bandits and kill them. Apparently the villagers didn't want to have blood on their hand.

"Alright everyone. You know what our objective is. Does anyone have any question?" asked Hayate seriously.

"Is it normal to outright kill bandits? Shouldn't there be trial or something?" asked Saburo.

"Not in this case. If we would be closer to Konoha, then we would capture them and brought them with us for trial, but this area is governed by Aribu village. And let me tell you one ugly fact. No one in Konoha wants to bring more criminals to the already full prisons, if there is another option," explained Hayate.

Saburo, Naruto and Midori nodded.

"Ok, then let's move. Naruto, you lead!"

...

"I don't sense anyone," said Naruto, frowning in concentration. He spread his perception to at least two hundred meters, but there was no one.

"Then we will track them. There should be plenty to trace. Do you know the exact location where you sensed them?" asked Hayate.

"I believe so," said Naruto already moving.

They moved quickly but silently. Naruto led them to the place which seemed like some type of camp. There was extinguished camp fire and some downed tree trunks used probably as benches.

"There are tracks," called Midori.

Hayate agreed and so they moved. No one spoke. Only occasional rustling of leafs or snap of twig could be heard. It took them almost three hours to sneak through the vegetation until Naruto sensed something. He signaled and moved little bit closer.

"Eight enemies," signaled Naruto.

"We will first check if they are really bandits and if so, we will ambush them. Understood?" signaled Hayate back.

Everyone nodded.

They slowly approached their targets. This time the location looked like proper camp. There was even wooden cabin. To the side sat several man around fire and seemed to be arguing about something. Their clothes was dirty and there could be seen some crude looking weapons on some of them.

"Two inside the cabin," signaled Naruto.

"We ambush them on my signal. Thrown weapons," signaled Hayate and continued.

"I take the two on the right side," signaled Naruto and moved in to position. He saw Midori move in opposite direction. Naruto prepared two shurikens and waited.

"Attack!" signaled Hayate. Naruto threw his shurikens in rapid succession. There was moment of total silence and then there were screams, followed by several thuds.

Steps could be heard and in next moment another two bandits emerged from cabin. But before they could even take in what was happening, two shurikens penetrated their carotid arteries.

"Some of them are still alive," signaled Naruto.

"Check them. Be careful!" signaled Hayate back.

Naruto created single earth clone and ordered him to check corpses. One could never be too careful. Then he went to corpses which his clone already checked. First corpse had shuriken driven deep into back of his skull. Second was in similar state. Naruto saw Midori and Saburo checking the rest of the first six bandits and so he went to check the last two. The first one had, as Naruto assumed, shuriken buried in his neck, but the second one was different matter. The bandit had to try to dodge or something because the shuriken ended in his left eye. Naruto paled. In the next moment he vomited.

"You did good," said Hayate somewhere behind them.

"This wasn't fight but slaughter," responded Saburo in disgust.

"Yes and you should get used to it. This is how shinobi life looks like," he shrugged.

Naruto stood up, cleaned his mouth and asked "What now?"

"Now we clean up after ourselves," Hayate said.

"You mean…" started Midori, her face quite sickly colored, but was interrupted.

"Yes. You need to pick up your weapons," sighed Hayate but continued: "I don't like it either, but this is common practice. We don't want to equip anyone coming here with quality steel. Now pick up your weapons and search all bodies. All their property is according to shinobi law yours."

"That is really… coldblooded," said Naruto.

"Yes, it is. If you want, donate their money - if they have any - to orphanage or hospital. They will use it much more effectively than them," said Hayate and leaned against the cabin.

"Be quick and thorough."

...

Naruto just started his wind affinity training, when Hayate brought their third mission. Five days after completing the first and the second. And compared to the them, it turned into four completely boring days. They had to escort some merchant to some village in the south of Land of Fire. Two days of slow walking and boredom to their destination and two back. Thought Naruto had it probably better than others in their team. With his detection technique as he renamed it, because it had very little to do with the original jutsu and his new senbon balancing exercise. It proved to be significantly harder than kunai balancing, thanks to their size.

Their fourth mission was similar to the first. Only this time they had to take care of twelve bandits. And so they picked up their fith mission in bored fashion. Partially because it was the same merchant as in the second mission, only this time they traveled to the northwest.

...

Naruto signaled halt. The caravan stopped. Next moment Hayate, Midori and Saburo was beside him.

"Did you sense something Naruto?"

"Yes, nine humans."

"Then it shouldn't be problem…" started Midori.

"They have chakra. All nine of them."

"Fuck. If there is more than one jonin level shinobi we don't have a chance probably. How far away they are?" asked Hayate.

"Something between two and three hundred meters and they are nearing us. Walk pace. Both sides of the road. And there is slight possibility, that they know that we know that they are here. You know how the technique works."

"Yeah… Everyone turn on your radios. Create clones, put them at your positions and also hide some clones to the civilians to protect them. Midori, do not hesitate using the explosion feature of your fire clones. And don't sacrifice yourself for civilians. If we are dead they are dead, if we are alive, they are alive. Originals will try to ambush them from behind. Naruto which side's chakra is stronger?"

"Left. Probably…"

"Saburo with me on the left side. Rest to the right. Understood?"

"Yes!"

Hayate signaled for the caravan to move.

"Spread!"

Naruto and Midori created several clones and gave them orders as quickly as possible. Then run into the forest. Naruto sensed the shinobi about one hundred meters ahead. He signaled Midori good luck and silently climbed on one of the trees. He sensed three chakras on the ground and two up in the trees. He carefully pulled out from his pouch two rolls of ninja wire and put them into his palms. He channeled chakra and two kunais rose from his sides to hover above his palms. Then the ends of wires rose like little snakes and tied themselves to their ends. Naruto then quickly ascended above the treetop and silently sneaked across the leaves, chakra spreading his weight. He stopped just few meters before the enemy and froze. He raised his palms and rest of the wires unrolled. He willed his chakra alongside their length and focused on the two closes shinobi. His wires slowly sneaked down through the trees, more deadlier then poisonous snake. He frowned in concentration as the ends closed on the ninjas and slowly started circling their throats, while matching their movement. When the circles were complete, Naruto started tightening them. Slowly, without any abrupt movement. He grabbed the kunais, with one of them clicked on the microphone to indicate he will start the attack.

In the next moment Naruto tightened the ends of wires as much as possible, then dropped his water walking technique and shunshined himself towards the ground. Before crushing himself on the ground saved him only the wire connected to his kunais. He heard short screams and snap of bones. Naruto stabbed the kunais to some trunk nearby. Just in time to bend down an attack meant to lop his head off of his shoulders. He swapped himself with nearby tree trunk and proceeded to flick his wrist, releasing several shurikens. Something detonated nearby and Naruto heard screams. The enemy ninja deflected the projectiles easily and closed the distance between them. He gripped some type of sword. Naruto started backpedaling. The enemy shinobi smiled cruelly and cried: "You are dead!" In that moment he also crossed one of Naruto's shurikens. Naruto raised his arm with kunai and swapped positions. Then drove the kunai to ninja's back. The enemy screamed, but didn't died. In the next moment Naruto was hit with lighting attack through the handle of kunai. His vision blackened and knees buckled.

...

Naruto opened his eyes. He was still in the forest. He was lying on something. It was the enemy ninja. He jumped up, searching the surrounding for signs of life. He sensed someone. He ran. Midori was lying on the ground, trying to stop a bleeding from her hurt leg.

He dropped next to her, already pulling out a bandage.

"I will fix it," he said and proceeded to stop the bleeding and bandage it quickly, while ignoring her screams of pain.

"I will kick your ass for this," Midori managed to say.

"I will be waiting," Naruto smirked, then added. "I am going to check the other side."

"Go," nodded Midori weakly.

Naruto ran as fast as possible and whenever the terrain allowed it shunshined himself. He came across the caravan where everything seemed to be alright. He ignored civilian's calls and screams and sprinted to the other side of the road.

Naruto sensed three chakras. And he was pretty sure that two belonged to Saburo and Hayate. He heard something. He sneaked slowly, not wanting to reveal his presence. There were two quickly moving bodies and he could hear clinking of steel. He looked carefully through the leafs of nearby bush. Hayate was fencing with some other guy. And even thought the unknown shinobi had only kunai, he seemed to be able to match Hayate. Little bit to the side was lying Saburo. Naruto sensed that he was alive, but probably unconscious. Naruto frowned for a moment and called his chakra. Then disappeared under the ground. He moved carefully, letting the earth flow around and through him, his body saturated with earth chakra. He moved towards the two opponents and stopped under their feet. He could feel any little disturbance in the earth as they moved in quick pace. Naruto concentrated on the movement of enemy shinobi. He had only one attempt to surprise him; he had to do it right.

Next moment Naruto stuck his hands above the ground level, and pulled the enemy shinobi down. Hard and fast. Then he heard sickly squelch. Naruto emerged from the ground and looked at his sensei. He smirked and said: "You look terrible."

"I can assure you, that you look much worse," Hayate smirked back. Then moved towards Saburo.

"Is he ok?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, he is just unconscious. All these bastard could use lightning and he got hit by it." Hayate said.

"Yeah, me too. I was even knocked out for moment. I am going to pick up Midori. She has badly hurt leg."

"So she is alive, that is good," said Hayate and released his breath.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded and sprinted away.

...

It took them another two hours to patch themselves up. Midori and Saburo both conscious, but very weak. Hayate went to search all dead shinobi, while Naruto watched for signs of next enemy. When Hayate came back with several sealing scrolls in his hands, the caravan started to move again.

"What rank would be normally assigned to something like this?" asked Naruto.

"A. But even then would never happen something like this. Genin team fighting eight chunins and jonin. We are lucky that we are alive," Hayate said.

"Yeah," said Midori. "I managed to get one with my fire clone, and had the second almost when all Naruto's clones helping me dispelled. I didn't expected it and got stabbed. Only thing which saved me was that I already poisoned him."

"Sorry for that," said Naruto. "He got me with lightning. I woke up moment later and found you."

"It isn't your mistake. Such think happens. By the way thank for the leg," reacted Midori. Naruto nodded. "What happened to you Saburo?" she asked after a moment.

"I finished one pretty easily with taijutsu. But the second one got me the same way as Naruto. When I punched him in the face I got really nasty shock. I don't remember anything after that," he said and turned to Hayate.

"You managed to stun him with that punch and I killed the third one pretty easily. The enemy jonin was in pure skill bellow me. But he had lightning affinity too, so I had to be very careful. Naruto then managed to distract him and thanks to that I was able to slit his throat," Hayate finished.

"They were from Kumo, weren't they?" asked Naruto.

"Probably," nodded Hayate. "I already sent reverse summoning scroll to Hokage. I wouldn't be surprised if we met some ANBU in few days."

"That's good." Said Midori with yawn. Others nodded.

...

It was weird feeling when they arrived back to Konoha. It was something close to disbelieve Naruto thought. They shouldn't be - according to all logic - alive. They should have died on that mission, but instead they were here, in the entrance of their peaceful town. It was really surreal feeling and Naruto decided he didn't like it.

"This is weird," he said, while looking around.

"Agreed. I was wondering if it was just me," added Saburo.

"This is kind of…" started Midori, but was interrupted.

"What you are feeling is quite normal for older shinobi," said Hayate. "It is disbelieve at the actuality that you are alive. The moment we engaged the enemy, each of you probably thought that you will die. But instead you are alive and they are dead. And what is more the calmness of Konoha is kind of surreal isn't it?"

"Yeah," they nodded quietly. Then Naruto asked: "What are you going to do?"

Hayate smirked. "I am going to find my girlfriend and fuck her senseless. Then take her on romantic dinner and afterwards have my way with her again." His three students reddened, but only slightly.

"I recommend you to find some hobby or something to take your mind off of things. And I don't mean training. You need something not battle related. It is said that all shinobi are partially insane. I know shinobi who cope with such things through reading porn in public. Some prefer sex or eat a lot. I know few who like to cook and few whose actual cope mechanism is to pretend that they are completely normal," Hayate chuckled. "Go find out what is it that can get you relaxed and back into your game. Next two days are free. Got it?"

"Yes sensei," they chorused quietly. Hayate shunshined away towards Hokage tower and Saburo helped Midori to the hospital, because he needed medical attention too. Naruto was left alone, in gates of Konoha. He raised his sight to the sky. He smiled. He could contemplate about his hobby while cloud watching.

...

Naruto was lying on treetops of some forest. He didn't know where he exactly was and right now he didn't even care. His dorsal tenketsu were spreading his chakra and by extension his weight across the sea of leafs, so he wouldn't fell through then. He was moving in slow waves, following the movement of tree branches underneath him. He moved his fingers absentmindedly and his chakra flew around him. Naruto willed it towards the tree. He guided it against the twigs, then branches down towards the trunk. When his chakra brushed against the ground he could feel the earthen feel of earth chakra. He grabbed it and entwined it with his own. Each droplet of his chakra paired with earth one, just like he did when he created earth clones or used the earth walking technique. They moved together as one entity, but still separated. They touched, brushed and felt each other, the ground and trees. They explored. But Naruto could feel the increasing longing of the other chakra to return to its home, to the earth. And so he did. However when he hit the ground, expecting his own chakra to meet usual resistance, something he didn't expected happened. He moved through it without practically any resistance. The earth chakra serving as guide. He willed the chakra deeper. It eagerly obeyed him. Then he spread it, just like he did with his normal detection technique. And in next moment he could feel the small animals living inside their holes, burrows and dens. Naruto laughed. He was an idiot. He had the solution to his problems with detection jutsu before his nose the whole time. And it was that simple. He laughed again. Next moment, his cheek was slit with something steely.

Naruto rolled to the side. Adrenalin pouring into his bloodstream. He was so absorbed in his discovery, that it limited his awareness. He immediately felt chakra several meter behind him. He turned and faced his opponent in combat stance. It was some girl… no. It was woman with purple hairs. She had jacket with mesh shirt under it and really short brown shorts.

"Who and what are you doing here? This is my forest," she said with smirk.

"Really? I wasn't aware that this area belonged to someone," retorted Naruto. "If I remember correctly, then this should be some training area. I am not sure about number."

"It is. It's known as forest of death or training area number 44 and it is closed to lowly genins like you," she smirked evilly again.

"Ah, I see how it is," Naruto smirked. "You pretend that you are some big shot and own this place, but in reality you just train in here."

"You are pretty cheeky for someone so small. What is your name?" she asked still smirking, while pulling out second kunai.

"I am Naruto, why do you want to know?"

"I want to know, who I will beat to bloody pulp for trespassing into my area," she barred her teeth.

"I see," said Naruto slowly. "And what is your name?" he asked.

"Anko Mitarashi of course. Why do you want to know?"

"Because," Naruto smirked and pulled his own kunai. He then swapped placed with her kunai and proceeded to slash her across cheek. Then shunshined away.

"Aaargh! You are dead!" cried Anko and started after him.

"Catch me if you can," smirked Naruto and shunshined again. What followed was the most crazy, dangerous, insane and fun game of tag Naruto ever played. He had to pull every little trick he could to stay away from that crazy bitch. He shunshined, swapped, run, dodged and parried. He never had the opportunity to even think about attacking her, that was how hard she pressed him.

After almost one hour of this insanity Naruto was tired. His still had some chakra, but it was his body which ran out of stamina. And so he stopped in the first clearing he found.

"I am dead," he croaked and dropped to the ground.

"Yes you are," he heard above himself. Anko dropped next to him on her knees and took deep breaths. Sweat drenching her body.

"Um… didn't you wanted to beat me?" asked Naruto.

"I want and I will, but I have to rest first," she groaned and fell on her backs next to Naruto.

"Um…"

"Don't you dare move! It will be much worse then," threatened Anko.

"I can't. I don't have energy for that," said Naruto honestly and then smirked. "But I have to say, that it was pretty fun.

"Yeah. What you can do with shunshin and kawarimi is insane. It looks like some really advanced version or something," Anko said impressed.

"Nah, just really advanced chakra control. That's all," said Naruto.

"That must be some chakra control," snorted Anko. Naruto just laughed and lay there.

"So will you answer me finally?" asked Anko after a moment.

"What do you mean?" Naruto turned his head towards her.

"What were you doing?"

"Ah, that. Thinking. My team almost died on last mission. Hell, I still don't believe that I am really alive. Our mission turned completely insane and we somehow survived it," he shrugged.

"So you was thinking about?"

"Our sensei told as to find some hobby to relax. He called it cope mechanism or something…"

Anko laughed and rose, then grabbed Naruto and threw him over her shoulder.

"Hey! What are you doing?" cried Naruto in outrage.

"I am going to show you the ultimate cope mechanism," said Anko with evil smile on her face. Then sprinted towards her apartment.

...

Naruto woke up and reddened. He clearly remembered what happened. He sensed someone close, probably in the next room. Then to his embarrassment realized that he was completely naked. He quickly looked around for his clothes. They were on a chair next to the bed. Naruto sighed in relief and scrambled to his feet. When he was clothed again, his first thought was to escape through the window, but unfortunately that would be kind of cowardly. Naruto sighed and with red face entered the other room.

"So, you didn't run," smirked Anko from behind the table. She had dango stick in her hand.

Naruto reddened even more and sighed in resignation. "I thought about it," he shrugged.

"Yesterday you told me that your name is Naruto, right?" Naruto nodded and awkwardly sat on chair opposite to Anko.

"No second name?" inquired Anko and popped another dango into her mouth.

Naruto sighed, there was the end. He could lie, but … "I don't think you want to know," tried Naruto.

"Oh? Now you have to tell me," ordered Anko.

"Ok, but I warned you. It's Uzumaki, Naruto Uzumaki," he said and carefully watched her.

Anko froze for a moment and then started massaging her temples. After moment of silence she asked: "So you are the Kyubi brat?"

"Yes."

"Then I will have to ask you to keep this to yourself…"

"You don't have to be so blunt about it!" Naruto snapped. "But do not worry, I will not go and shout that you slept with local jinchuriki." Naruto rose with intent to leave, but was slapped across the face. It hurt.

"You finished?" asked calmly Anko, still eating her dango. Naruto didn't react so Anko continued: "It isn't because you are jinchuriki…" Anko paused and sighed in frustration. "Look," she started again. "Do you know who Orochimaru is?"

"You mean that traitorous sannin?" asked Naruto in confusion.

"Yes. You see, I was his student, his apprentice. And thanks to that I am kind of... pariah. Actually it is similar to your situation," Anko said.

"Ok, so?" asked Naruto impatiently.

"What do you think will happen if two most hated individuals in Konoha will be seen together?"

"Um… that could be bad," Naruto agreed reluctantly.

"Exactly. You probably don't know but I was really close to execution back then, so…"

"Ok. I understand," sighed Naruto.

"Good," smirked Anko, then asked: "How old are you?"

"Thirteen, I celebrated my birthday two weeks ago," smirked Naruto. But Anko merely shrugged. Naruto pouted: "I thought that you will be more surprised. I kind of figured that I look older."

"You do," admitted Anko. "But it doesn't really matter. The moment you got that headband, you are -according to shinobi law - allowed to kill, drink and have a sex. Plus several other things."

"Ok. So what now?" asked Naruto.

"Nothing. I don't do relationships. If you will need help to cope again, then come," said Anko and smirked again, when Naruto reddened.

"Um… I have to be kind of… inexperienced. Why would you offer something like that to me?" asked Naruto uncomfortably.

"I just like to see you squirming below me."

...

"So what did you do during those two days?" asked Hayate with smile.

"I took up another martial art. It is designed more for meditation then fighting," said Saburo.

"Gardening. Mainly poisonous plants," smiled Midori.

"..."

"Naruto?"

"Um... I played tag!" exclaimed Naruto. Others sweated.

"..."

"In training area 44." Hayate sweated. Naruto smirked.

...

In the following month they took another four C-rank missions. Between them everyone started on their second elemental affinity and to that added something of their own. In Naruto's case that meant intensive lectures in swordsmanship with Hayate, training with his newly discovered variation of detection technique and learning how to maintain the underground and normal part simultaneously. Plus occasional visit to the forest of death.

It was on one of their training days that Hayate surprised them.

"So, I brought something for you," he said and handed each of them some form.

"Chunin exams?" exclaimed Midori.

"Yes. Next chunin exams are held in three weeks in Suna. If you want to participate, then fill these forms and return them to me." Hayate said.

The three young shinobi looked at each other, then back at Hayate.

"Do you think that we are ready?" asked Naruto.

"If I wasn't, why would I give you these forms?" tilted Hayate his head.

"Um… right," said Naruto smartly and scratched his neck. "Does someone have a pen?"

"I have," responded Midori, but added: "But you will have to wait, until after me."

"So you want to go?" smiled Hayate.

"Of course," they chorused.

...

Naruto was eating his rightfully earned ramen, inside the Ichiraku's ramen stand, when he sensed someone approaching at high speed. He paused and looked to his right. Next moment ANBU with whitely painted mask appeared. Naruto snorted. The ANBU had fox mask.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" asked the ANBU.

"Yes?"

"You have been summoned before Hokage," answered ANBU.

"Ok. I will be there as soon as I finish this," Naruto pointed at his bowl of ramen. The ANBU nodded and disappeared.

...

"Hello Naruto," greeted him Sarutobi.

"Hokage-sama," Naruto nodded in formal greeting. "I was told that you wish to speak with me?"

"Yes Naruto," nodded Sarutobi while frowning a little, but after a moment continued: "Hayate signed your team up for chunin exams in Suna. And there is one thing that you need to be aware of."

"Ok. What is the matter?" asked Naruto.

"It is forbidden to send jinchuriki to another elemental nation without informing their respective Kage. In this situation Kazekage. Such violation is viewed as act war.

"So that means that I cannot compete?" asked Naruto, frowning.

"No," shook Sarutobi his head. "It means that you need permission from Kazekage. And because I had meeting with Kazekage last month, I was able to get one," smiled Sarutobi and handed some officially looking document to Naruto.

"Um… thank you?" said Naruto slowly.

"Not needed," shrugged Sarutobi. "I just needed you to be aware that during the stay in Suna, you are forbidden to use any Kyubi's powers."

"I don't even know how," shrugged Naruto in response.

"I know that, but they don't. So be simply careful," said Sarutobi.

"Ok. I can do that," nodded Naruto.

"And there is one more thing. Suna have their own jinchuriki. We do not know who it is. But we have information that suggests, that he or she is insane. Because of that I want you to try keep distance from him or her," said Sarutobi.

"Ok. I will see what I can do."

"Good. It was nice to see you again Naruto," said Sarutobi in farewell. Naruto nodded and left.

A/N: Thanks for reviews!


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Coldblooded**

"What time is it?" asked sleepy voice behind Naruto. Simultaneously a hand sneaked around his waist, pressing him against the soft and warm flesh of the person behind him. Naruto craned his neck, looking at the alarm clock.

"Your shift at T&I start in fifty minutes," said Naruto and pulled himself upright. He yawned.

"So Foxy, you are leaving for Suna today?" drawled Anko, turning on her left side.

"Yeah. We are leaving just after midday. I am going to visit a friend before it, thought."

"Aww, I will miss you Foxy," smiled slyly Anko through her messy purple hair, while running her hand over Naruto's thigh, who shivered. "I have a request for you," said Anko, her smile turning into grin.

"What is it?" asked Naruto, already suspicious.

"Could you fuck for me, some really hot chick over there?" finished Anko, her smile positively blinding. Naruto snorted, not really surprised by Anko's antics anymore.

...

Naruto entered Nara clan compound. He nodded to some of the Nara clan members and they nodded back. Some of them he ignored, because they ignored him. He certainly wasn't going to be polite to them just because they belonged to some clan.

Naruto walked through the garden and entered the dining room, where he found Shikamaru's mother.

"Good morning Yoshino-san," he bowed respectfully.

"Hello Naruto. If you are here to visit Shikamaru, then I am afraid he is still asleep," sighed Yoshino while rolling her eyes.

"I could wake him up," smirked Naruto.

"Oh? And how would you do that?" asked intrigued Yoshino with raised eyebrow.

"There is plenty of options to choose from. But I think that bucket full of ice cold water will do," grinned cheekily Naruto. Yoshino grinned too.

...

"I really hate you!" growled Shikamaru when he sat on chair in dining room and waited for his mother to bring him breakfast.

"I see you are in good mood," smirked Naruto.

"So why are you here?" muttered Shikamaru.

"Just came to tell you that I am leaving for chunin exams today."

"Oh? So your sensei finally signed you up for them?" asked Yoshino.

"Yeah," nodded Naruto.

"So, where are they held?" asked Shikamaru.

"Suna."

"Troublesome," yawned Shikamaru.

Naruto rolled his eyes and decided to change topic: "So how is your team training?"

"Troublesome… from the last time not much changed. I only decided that taijutsu isn't for me. I am far too lazy for that. Instead I am focusing on chakra control like you and increasing my chakra reserves. I can do water walking already. And it is much less troublesome than taijutsu," shrugged Shikamaru.

"So, you can use shadows without seal?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah," shrugged Shikamaru.

"That's good," nodded Naruto.

"When do you leave?" asked then Shikamaru.

"After lunch."

"Then you can show me, that kunai balancing thing."

...

"So, this is Suna," stated Naruto. It took them three days of travel to get here. Currently they stood right before the entrance to Suna. Between two imposing stone mountains leaded narrow pass, with several massive gates along the way. Naruto didn't really know how such thing could be moved, but probably with lot of man power and chakra. All in all, till now it was very impressive sight.

"Wait a little bit longer," said Hayate and started walking again. It didn't take long and they came before the last gate, this one actually closed. Only small side entrance was opened instead, with several guards next to it.

"Ah, another genin team registered for chunin exams has arrived," one of them said and moved little bit closer to them and greeted them: "Welcome Konoha's shinobi, do you have your identifications?"

"Yeah. Here it is," said Hayate and handed him their permits.

"Alright, everything seems to be in order. And here is a simple map which will guide you towards your lodging," the guard said after a moment and returned the documents. Then moved aside, allowing them to pass through the door.

"Thanks," nodded Hayate and motioned to his team to move.

In the next moment they entered large circular area surrounded by the same imposing mountains as outside. And into that was carved countless amount of homes.

"This is awesome," said Midori, turning on her feet.

"Certainly different than Konoha," added Saburo.

"Yeah," agreed Naruto, then turned to Hayate and asked: "Can I see the map? So I can lead us?" It was already sort of tradition for Naruto to lead. Hayate nodded and with mischievous smile handed him the map.

"…"

"Naruto?" asked after a moment Midori.

"This map is weird," said Naruto and motioned for them to come closer.

"What the hell is this?" asked Saburo.

"Do you think they pulled prank on us?" added Midori.

"Brats," started Hayate, chuckling. "It isn't map of the ground, but instead map of the walls." His students blinked at him for several moments, then looked at each other and then Naruto asked slowly:

"Did you hear something?"

"Nah," shook Midori her head.

"It was probably just s wind," nodded Saburo in conviction.

"Brats! Move before I kick yours asses," Hayate growled. Chuckling followed.

When Naruto finally knew how to orientate in that thing, finding the way wasn't hard. Naruto choose one of the stairs and led them. Along the way passing various little shops, stand or homes. In the end they stood before unusually large building. It had large door and on the first floor was large terrace with many small tables. Several of them already occupied.

"Nice," said Midori and eagerly entered. Others followed her.

The ground floor was filled with tables and chairs too and between them stood stone pillars supporting the upper floors.

"It seems like some kind of hotel," said Naruto. "We should probably go and get a room or something. Tomorrow starts the exam and I would really like to get as much sleep as possible before them. "

"Good idea," added Midori. Others agreed.

...

Team Hayate ascended to the hotel's uppermost floor and stopped before large door.

"So, from here on you are on your own. Good luck," said Hayate.

"Do not worry sensei, we won't forget you when we are all chunins," said slyly Midori.

"Like I would care about something like that, brats," snorted Hayate, but internally he was torn. He was very skeptical that he could ever get better or at least similar genin team as them.

"That's mean Hayate sensei," they all chorused, jovially. "But even then we won't forget you. And when you are all old and wrinkly, we will even change your diapers."

"Get lost," growled Hayate in irritation. Then sighed. "And be careful," he added, when the brats disappeared behind the door.

...

"Wow! There is lot of teams," said Saburo. His teammates nodded. It was very large room without any furniture and even then was crowded.

"Let's move somewhere to the side, so we don't attract so much attention," whispered Naruto already moving.

"How many people do you think there is?" asked Midori, checking her competition.

"A would hazard a guess somewhere between one hundred and thirty to fifty," said Naruto quietly.

"Guys I think it is good time to choose teams which to avoid," whispered Saburo.

"Yeah," agreed Naruto, then added: "Do you see that team with two girls? Blonde and redhead?"

"They look competent," agreed Midori.

"What about that group near the corner?" asked Saburo.

"You mean those three gorillas?" chuckled Naruto.

"No," snorted Saburo. "Those are trash. I mean the group on their left."

"I see… So that would be two groups to avoid… No, three. Do you see that group opposite to us?"

"Yes, what about them?" asked Midori.

"All three of them have quite large chakra reserves."

"It could mean nothing if they don't have any skill or that, that they are unable to suppress their chakra," shrugged Saburo.

"Yeah, but they could be really good too," shrugged Naruto. "It's not like we are experts on assessing enemies."

"Good point," nodded Saburo.

In the next moment entered several shinobi. Their headbands assigning them to Suna. One of them stepped forward and yelled:

"Alright! Anyone, who will speak without permission from now on, will be disqualified! I am Baki and I will be proctoring the first part of the chunin exam, so you better listen to me or I will kick you out of here so fast, that you won't be even able to blink," he said and paused for several moments, looking through the crowd as if daring anyone to disagree. Then continued: "Good. In short moment we will start calling individual teams. If you hear your number, enter the room behind me. You will be given instructions there… If you are not total idiots, then you probably already realized, that the first part of this exams is individual for each team. At the end each team will be given points depending on how well they did. These result will be sorted and the worst forty percent of the teams will be asked to leave, understood?" Silence followed.

"Let's start then. Team number one!"

...

Naruto and his teammates stepped through the door. There was waiting a chunin for them, who motioned them to follow him. He leaded them inside a small room with table, several papers and pencils and said: "Your task is to write down as much as you can about the other teams you saw just a moment ago. You have thirty minutes. Do not leave this room. Someone will come to collect you." Then he left.

"So this is a trick test," sighed Midori and dropped on her chair.

"Yeah. But what is done is done, let's try to write down as much as we can," shrugged Naruto.

"..."

"Um… those three gorillas specialize on taijutsu?" asked Saburo.

"Probably, write it down."

"And everyone who had sword uses swordsmanship," added Naruto.

"Right!"

"I saw several ninja with fan there. Wind affinity?" asked Midori.

"Good notice."

"We could assign affinities based on their villages?" tried Naruto.

"We could, the same logic is used on battlefield if you don't have a bingo book…"

"Could some of them be in bingo book?" asked Naruto, already pulling his copy out.

"Most likely not, but it is worth a try," shrugged Midori, while writing down some other ideas.

"We could write down information about their chakra capacity," said Saburo.

"No. It would told Suna that one of us is sensor. That important these exams aren't to me."

"Right. Stupid of me," nodded Saburo.

"Look, I think I found one or two in here," said Naruto, already writing it down.

"Good."

"So what else do you remember?"

...

Exactly after thirty minutes the door opened and the same chunin picked up the papers and led them back to the hall. It didn't take long and every team were back. And then after an hour or so Baki returned.

"So, let me tell you, that the results are pathetic! So pathetic in fact that we decided to kick out the worst fifty percent instead of forty! Here are the numbers of teams which can leave: Two, five, six…"

...

"We passed…" whispered Midori.

"Yeah. We got lucky," snorted Naruto and Saburo simultaneously.

"So, now that the trash is out, we can proceed to the second part of the exam. You will be given map with marked position at which you are expected to be tomorrow at seven in the morning. Any fighting is forbidden till then and anyone who will violates this rule will be disqualified. When you get the map, you can leave. It is entirely up to you, how you will get at the designated place. See you tomorrow" said Baki and left.

...

Naruto and his teammates were back in their rooms. Hayate wasn't anywhere to be seen, when they entered and so they gathered around the table.

"Show us the map," said impatiently Saburo.

"Right," nodded Naruto and placed it before them. Then immediately noticed that his chakra was disrupted by something foreign. He quickly gathered his chakra and crushed that thing.

"Look, the position of the mark changed," said Saburo.

"It was genjustu," said Naruto.

"Ah, I was feeling kind of weird," nodded Midori, then added bitingly: "Another trick test."

"It's kind of annoying, all easy preys will be filtered out," sighed Naruto.

"That is kind of the point," snorted Saburo.

"So where do we have to go?" asked Naruto and looked at the map.

"Northeast from Suna. It seems that the meeting point is close to the borders with Land of Fire, if you ignore the thin strip belonging to Land of Rivers," said Midori.

"That will took us around six hours of fast run," commented Naruto.

"Yeah. I think that we have only one choice and that is to go immediately and rest right there, because I don't want to travel during night," said Saburo.

"I agree. If we start now, we can be there before dusk," added Midori.

"Ok then, it is decided. I think that it would be clever to plan for one or two weeks long mission. And at least triple the amount of water," said Naruto and rose from the chair. Midori and Saburo nodded, then everyone proceeded to check their equipment.

...

Travelling through a dessert wasn't that bad in Naruto's opinion. Of course, that was true only if you already discovered, that water walking technique was actually named wrong. The correct name was the sand walking technique. He already pitied everyone who couldn't do that.

They arrived at the designated place without any trouble. Several teams were already there, setting tents. Some even used earth chakra to create small shelters.

"We will use tent. I don't want to help our enemies to identify our affinity," said Naruto and pulled out sealing scroll from his west.

"Ok," said others and helped him with the construction. It was special tent designed for dessert and was big enough for them all. Normally they slept only in their bags but to do that in dessert was kind of stupid. Firstly, nights in dessert were usually very cold and secondly, there was always the danger, that a sand storm could come.

Naruto took first watch. It somehow happened that the tents and shelters created a circle. Then someone got the idea to create several stone benches in the center. It seemed that several genins used them and were currently quietly chatting. Naruto came closer, picked one free bench and lay down on it. For a moment there was a silence and then the conversation continued. Naruto closed his eyes and waited. He wasn't afraid that he would fall asleep, because his mind still worked. Slowly and carefully exploring his surroundings, watching for any sign of danger.

Some genins didn't used the benches and instead sat near their tent. Watching alertly their surroundings. During the night some left for the tents and others replaced them. When was time for Naruto to sleep, there was only two another silhouettes in the dark. Both of them watching him. One of them was the redheaded girl he noticed before the first test and the other was some boy that Naruto very quickly dismissed.

Naruto smirked slightly and in provocation said: "Thanks for watching over me while I slept." The girl snorted quietly, while the boy stayed silent. However Naruto could sense from such close proximity, that corners of his mouth slightly rose. Naruto then stood up and went to woke up Saburo.

...

Naruto swallowed last piece of his morning ration bar and washed it down with little bit of water. He and his teammates were currently using one of the stone benches. And just like everyone else, impatiently waiting for when Baki decides to tell them their task. Said jonin arrived almost one hour ago with several chunins and until now did nothing.

Suddenly there was a stir. Baki was heading towards them.

"So, yesterday ended sixty nine genins and today it is another twenty four - thanks to our little genjutsu. In total that means, that here is forty five of you right now or - if you like - fifteen teams. In third task every single one of you will be given one of these badges," he showed them small steel plate and continued: "But to advance to the final part of the exam, each of you will need three of these. That means that maximally five teams can advance. However that is not all. Each team will also need single golden badge. Those are possible to obtain at the watch tower in the Land of Fire. Exact location is on the maps that you will receive shortly. But I warn you, the border with Land of Fire is guarded and only those of you who will have the silver badge can cross it!" he paused. Studying them carefully. "You have exactly five days to complete this test and return here… And one more thing! Killing is allowed! So thing carefully about what you do! Now make a queue so we can hand each of you a badge and map. After that we will release one team every ten minutes."

"That's not fair! There should be simultaneous start!" cried someone from the crowd.

Baki snorted and then said evilly: "Life is not fair, so get used to it! And the order is decided by your scores from the first test. The best ones gets to go first."

"This looks really hard," said Midori.

"Yeah. We will have to engage at least two teams," nodded Naruto.

"We need to reach forested area as soon as possible. We don't have experiences with desert warfare," added Saburo.

"Exactly my thoughts. And we have big advantage thanks to Naruto," agreed Midori.

"Ok then," nodded Naruto. "And we will even learn, how lucky we got in the first part. Thought, on the other hand we will be probably the last group to go." Naruto sighed.

...

In the end they got to go as the eighth team. Immediately starting directly towards Konoha's border, only circumventing the other teams. In only few hours started the sand turning into less loose surface and occasional bushes could be seen. Then appeared grass and suddenly they could see forest.

"We are probably already inside the Land of Rivers. According to the map, there is large amount of ravines and rivers flowing through them," said Naruto on one short drink pause.

"How wide are they? Is possible to jump over them?" asked Midori.

"Probably at least some of them. And the rest we can simply cross with tree and water walking. It shouldn't be too big of a problem," shrugged Naruto.

"Ok, then let's go," finished Saburo.

...

"You didn't lie!" gasped Midori. "That was at least thirtieth river. I need a break!"

"Ok," nodded Naruto and dropped down on his ass. "At least this was the last one according to the map."

"That means that Fire's border is close," added Saburo while slurping water from his bottle.

"We should probably start looking for teams to…"

"Silence!" signaled Naruto. "Three chakras. Two hundred and fifty meters. They are nearing us from the same direction we came."

"They could be following our tracks. We didn't really bother to hide them," signaled Midori in frown.

"Maybe, but that doesn't matter. Let's hide and if this team won't be one of those we decided to avoid, we will attack them," signaled Naruto and moved towards the edge of nearby forest.

Few seconds later the team appeared, overcame the ravine and stopped exactly at their previous location, carefully scanning the surroundings.

"So I was right. They are after us," signaled Midori.

"Aren't they the three gorillas we saw in the meeting hall?" signaled Naruto, helping himself with his mouth, because he didn't know the sign for word gorilla.

"You are right," nodded Saburo.

"Attack?" signaled Midori.

"As usual," signed Naruto and pulled out his shurikens. "I am taking the middle one. Wait until they get little bit more closer to us." His teammates nodded while carefully moving into positions.

The three moved slowly towards them while scanning the ground. Naruto waited little bit more, then signaled: "Attack!" and threw his two shurikens towards the back of one of the ninja. His teammates doing the same. He was about to jump out of bush, when Saburo's ninja's hands moved in quick seal and his skin darkened. He then jumped in front of his teammate, while simultaneously pushing the third one to the side. There was clinging sound as shuriken rebounded from his skin.

"You shouldn't have attacked us," he smirked when he saw that both his companions were alright. "Now come out and give us your badges." His teammates were already by his sides and prepared to fight.

"What do we do?" asked Naruto quietly. "And how the hell my shurikens rebounded from his skin?"

"It's earth jutsu. It's makes your skin hard as stone," whispered Saburo.

"How do you know that?" frowned Naruto.

"I can do it too. I was saving it for you if I had to face you in the final matches," smirked Saburo.

"Great," muttered Naruto. "I should have learned it."

"You were working on your wind chakra," shrugged Saburo.

"Hey! Come out! If you give us your badges, you can leave," cried the second gorilla.

"We could try to face them in open combat?" asked hopefully Saburo. Naruto frowned even more.

"Do you think that fire clones could damage them?" asked Midori.

"If there was enough of them? Sure," said Saburo.

"What is enough?" asked Naruto.

"Three and more I think," shrugged Saburo.

"Ok, we do this like this. Saburo you take one of them. They are from Iwa, so lightning shouldn't be a problem. Midori, use fire clones. I will use my too and they will try to create an opening for you. I will take the third one. Hopefully the clones will work."

"Ok," agreed Saburo with Midori.

"So you finally decided to give us your badges," smirked the first gorilla.

"Maybe, maybe not," shrugged Naruto and pulled out his sword.

"So you wants to this the hard way," sighed the first one.

"Yeah," nodded Naruto and neared the middle one. Saburo took the left one and Midori with several clones took the third.

"Shame," said the first and jumped towards Naruto. Naruto bend under the punch, while cutting his opponent over the left ankle. His sword rebounded the same way as his shurikens. Naruto quickly shunshined away, allowing the next punch hit the ground. And was glad that he did. The hole that the fist crated was impressive. Naruto threw several of his kunais, aiming at the gorilla's face. Which was promptly deflected by muscular arm.

"This is useless, you know," said the gorilla in bored manner.

"It appears so," sighed Naruto and pulled another several kunais. Then shunshined in the air right in front of gorilla's face and drove one as hard as he could into his shoulder. Unfortunately the kunai slipped on the stone hard skin and stayed stuck inside the jacket. When Naruto was about to get punched, he shunshined just behind his back leaving behind himself as much leafs as possible. Then stabbed second kunai into gorilla's back. And again the kunai slipped to the side. Naruto had to leave it there to dodge a punch aimed at his skull.

"This is getting annoying," growled the beefy boy.

"Hey, that was my line," smirked Naruto again backpedaling. Suddenly there was detonation and scream. Naruto almost tripped over his own legs. Midori's opponent lay on the ground. He was alive, but severely burned.

"You bitch," growled Naruto's opponent and charged Midori. She dodged and started backpedalling the same way as Naruto. Sometimes throwing kunai or shuriken.

Naruto checked on Saburo. Both of the opponents seemed to be exchanging punches while both used that annoying stone skin technique. Naruto returned his attention back to Midori. He called his chakra and sank into the ground leaving only his head out. Then swapped himself with his original opponent. And immediately detonated the two explosive tags on the kunais that got stuck inside the genin's jacket. There was another detonation and painful scream. Naruto turned around. The apparent leader of this team was stuck inside the ground as was Naruto a second ago. He seemed unconscious or even possibly dead. The power of explosive tag was normally significantly weaker than that of fire clone, but the difference was probably matched if not outright exceeded in an enclosed space as in this case. Naruto sighed. He didn't want to kill him, but if he didn't detonate the tags immediately, then the boy would get out very quickly. He was earth user after all.

Naruto checked Midori, who held thumb towards him with smile, while searching her first unconscious opponent. Then he turned towards Saburo. Saburo and the third member of enemy team didn't fight anymore, and was talking about something. Naruto walked towards them.

"Hey Saburo, how does it look like?" he asked.

"He says that we can take the badges if we leave him to take care of his teammates," responded Saburo.

"Sure," nodded Naruto and turned towards the third boy.

"If I were you I would check on you leader. I don't know if he isn't dead…"

"He isn't, I took both of their badges and both looked alive. But the one partially in the ground needs medical attention or he will probably die very soon," said Midori.

"That's good," said Naruto and met his gaze with the now pale Iwa boy. "For what is worth, I am sorry, but that stone jutsu of yours doesn't really gave us much choice. I hope he will survive."

"Me too, he is my brother," said quietly the boy. "Here is your third badge. I am going to take care of my teammates."

"Good luck," said Saburo, joined his teammates and added quietly. "Sometimes I think, that I chose wrong career."

"Me too," said Midori and Naruto simultaneously.

"So, what now?" asked Midori after a moment of silence.

"In two hours will be night. We should probably find some good camping spot and rest," said Naruto. "Tomorrow we will go pick up our golden badge."

"Good idea," agreed Saburo. Midori nodded.

...

"Stop right there!" ordered a voice next morning.

"You are from the border patrol?" asked Naruto, who obviously knew about the shinobi.

"Yeah. Ah, so you guys are ours. I was wondering if you would make it here," calmed the voice. Towards them was walking masked shinobi. The person was ANBU.

"That's right," nodded Naruto and with his teammates showed him their badges.

"All right. You can proceed. The tower is only one hour away if you travel at usual speed," said the ANBU and next moment disappeared.

"That was quick," noted Midori.

"Yeah. Let's go," said Naruto, already moving.

Compared to yesterday they moved significantly slower and more carefully. And it was only thanks to Naruto that they managed to progress without a fight so far. Area around them was swarming with enemy teams and they certainly didn't think that it was good idea to fight somewhere where was really good chance that any sort of commotion would attract another several teams.

"Halt!" signaled Naruto. "Enemy team before us is crossing our path. Wait until they pass."

"We should be pretty close already," signaled Midori back.

"Yeah. I would guess something around 3 miles," added Saburo.

Naruto nodded, then signaled: "We can move. Carefully!"

It took them another full hour to cross the rest of the forest and suddenly they could saw the watch tower around which was several hundred meter large deforested area. And it appeared, that two teams were currently fighting close to it. With several ANBU watching the fight.

"That is kind of crazy. I mean to fight right under the eyes of ANBU," said Naruto in disbelief.

"Yeah. But here they can at least see if some other team is moving towards them. So it is still better than to fight in the forest right behind us," said Midori.

"That's true," agreed Saburo.

"Do you sense anyone else except them?" asked Midori.

"No, but some could be in the watch tower. I am not close enough," answered Naruto.

"Then let's go. And check that fight, I think I just saw some lightning attack" said Saburo slowly moving towards the tower. His teammates following.

"Do not run. We don't want them to stop fighting," warned Naruto.

"I think that it is that team from Kumo with those two girls. Blonde and redhead if I remember correctly," said Midori.

"Yeah, you are right," nodded Naruto with squinting eyes.

"Is it only me or are they really destroying that other team?" asked slowly Saburo.

"Guys, I think that we made really good choice to avoid them. That fight will end in moment," said Naruto.

"Do you think that we would be able to defeat them?" asked Midori.

"It would be really hard. If all of them have lightning affinity, we would be really screwed," said Naruto reluctantly.

"Did I already told you, that I really hate lightning?" asked Saburo. Naruto and Midori snorted.

It didn't take long and Naruto and his teammates entered the watch tower. At the same time the nearby fight ended too and both teams were returning towards the tower. The Kumo team didn't have a scratch on themselves, while the other team, which appeared to belong to some village named Ishigakure, didn't have unhurt spot on theirs bodies.

"Impressive," greeted Naruto.

"Not really," answered the blonde girl and turned towards Naruto, who couldn't not to notice her impressive chest, but quickly raised his gaze. "They were trash," added the girl then.

"I am just glad that we could see you fight," smiled Naruto.

"So you want to fight?" asked the redhead next to the blonde in challenge. Her arms crossed at over her chest. Her hairs were braided into countless small braids and those were pulled back into ponytail.

"We would rather not," said Midori. "There is plenty more easier targets."

"You are in luck then," said the redhead. "Cause we don't need any more badges." It was then that some ANBU with slug mask approached them.

"Congratulation to both of you for reaching this place," he said and pulled two golden badges. "Here are your prizes."

"Thanks," said Naruto, while pocketing the object. The blonde girl took the other one and nodded.

"You can take quick break here," said the slug and turned towards Kumo team. "But any fighting is prohibited while inside."

"Doesn't matter, we won't stay here," shrugged the apparent leader of Kumo team, turned away and along with her teammates headed towards the forest.

"If I were you, I would not fight them before the final matches," said the ANBU to them.

"We figured the same thing," shrugged Saburo.

"That's good. Good luck," nodded the ANBU and walked away.

"So, we have the badge and only thing which remains is to defeat some team," said Saburo.

"Yeah. Let's eat now and then start the way back," said Naruto.

...

They chose the most direct route back to the starting camp. Naruto figured that if all other teams by some chance already visited the tower, they should try to return as quickly as possible and intercept some of them. And so they were quickly moving over the treetops.

"There is someone before us," signaled Naruto. "But I sense only two."

"One of them probably died in some previous skirmish. For what we know, it could be the team which we fought yesterday," said Midori.

"Ok, let's check it out," nodded Naruto. They moved closer.

"They are from Kusa," signaled Saburo.

"Ambu…" started Naruto, but was interrupted.

"Come out! We know about you!" called one of them. Saburo looked at Naruto and shrugged.

"It could be trap," signaled Midori.

"That's true," added Saburo.

"We could simply force them to move to some other area," offered Naruto.

"Yeah, that could work, but…"

"Behind you Midori!" cried Naruto, already throwing several shurikens. But the Kusa nin dodged them and aimed his arms on Midori. Then there was rain of senbons. But Midori flicked her wrist and deflected at least eight of them using her own and always ready shurikens. Then grabbed kunai in each hand and proceeded to deflect the rest at such speed, that her arms were only blur.

Naruto sensed movement on the ground and reflexively threw several kunais in that direction. One of the two boys deflected them easily. But didn't do much more. Naruto frowned and intensified his sensor technique. But couldn't find anything else. He checked on Midori who just deflected the last senbon. The newly discovered shinobi had a smirk on his face. Then backed away, quickly joining the two on the ground. Naruto was just about to attack them when Midori yelled:

"Naruto! No!" He froze. Saburo with him. There was something wrong. Midori sat on the leafs and was wrapping strong rope around her left leg and under the knee.

"What is wrong? Did you managed to deflect them all?" asked Naruto in confusion. Ignoring the escaping team.

"All except one. I got nicked at my ankle," bitted out Midori and tightened the rope as much as possible. "It was poisoned. I recognized it immediately. The poison has very distinct smell."

"So what…"

"Shut up!" snapped Midori. "That poison is deadly. And there isn't any antidote for it!" Naruto froze.

"Is there something that can be done?" asked chalky white Saburo.

Midori was silent for a moment as she tightened another rope. It was obviously painful, because she was crying.

"Yes… Yes, there is something… I need you to cut the infected part of my leg off," she said.

"No way…" started Naruto, but was again interrupted.

"Naruto! Be silent and listen to me very carefully! I am alive just because you warned me. If I would be hit by all of them, I would be probably already dead. I stopped the blood flow from my ankle as fast as I could so there is chance that it didn't spread yet. But it will if something isn't done and because there isn't antidote for it and we certainly don't have any highly skilled medic in our team, who could remove the poison altogether, this is the only way!"

"Ok, but… "

"Or do you want me dead? If it spreads to rest of my body, I will have hour, maybe two!" Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Ok, if you think that this is the only chance how to… save you. I will do it."

"Good. You will need your sword," said Midori. Naruto gulped and turned green. "And you Saburo quickly remember what to do if someone severs part of your limb. I don't want to bleed out!"

"Right," said Saburo and started unpacking his medical supplies.

"We need to move to the ground," said Naruto after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, but someone will have to carry me. I don't want to move and risk spreading the poison." answered Midori.

...

"So, are you ready Naruto? I injected myself with some really strong painkillers, so it shouldn't be that bad," said Midori, trying to sound calmly, but her sickly pale face was betraying her.

"Probably as much as I ever will be," said Naruto quietly.

"Then do it!" said Midori, closed her eyes and bitted into a twig. Naruto willed his chakra and layered his sword with as strong wind layer as he could. He was still in middle of the training and couldn't really do much. Certainly not in a fight. But he figured, that if he could do something to make it at least a little bit more bearable, he should try it. Naruto took an aim and with one precise swing, severed part of Midori's left limb. Midori screamed.

...

"I think that this is all we can do," said Saburo and wiped his bloody hand on his garb. Midori was currently unconscious.

"I know, but her wound is still bleeding. She needs professional medical attention and she needs it fast," said Naruto.

"One of the teams could have one," said hopefully Saburo.

"Yeah, but why would they help us?" asked Naruto.

"Fuck it!" growled Saburo and kicked nearby branch. "How far can you sense if you really try?"

"Three or four hundred meters," said Naruto.

"Then let's move as fast as we can and if we meet some team, we will offer them our badges," said Saburo without any hesitation. "And you try to really search!"

"I am sorry. I don't know how he managed to hide from me. Probably some sort of jutsu," said Naruto and created several clones, which picked their makeshift stretcher with Midori on it.

"Sorry," sighed Saburo.

"No need," shook Naruto his head. "Let's try to find some team!"

...

Naruto froze and stopped his clones.

"What is it?" signaled Saburo.

"Twelve targets," signaled Naruto. Saburo stared.

"I will go look what is it about," signaled Naruto.

"What if there will be that team that somehow managed to discover us?" said Saburo in whisper.

"That's possible, but we don't have a choice," answered Naruto and motioned towards Midori. Saburo sighed and nodded.

Naruto suppressed his chakra as much as possible, in hope that he could stay undetected if there really was that Kusa team. He jumped from tree to tree as silently as possible and sneaked forward. Naruto slowed down and last fifty or so meters overcame in very slow and careful fashion. He crouched on one branch and looked through the leafs.

He could see small clearing. There were standing nine ninja, all with headband marking them as Kusa shinobi, but Naruto couldn't see the team who attacked them. Then he noticed the now already familiar red and blonde head. They were bound to the trees and was in partial state of undress. Naruto got really nauseating feeling. Those nine fuckers were going to gang rape them. He closed his eyes for a moment and the feeling was just as quickly as it came suffocated by anger. Black, red and cruel. Naruto looked again at the girls again. And was impressed. Even thought their chests were already disrobed and their breasts for all to see, they didn't appeared to be scared. They weren't even crying. "Cowards," thought Naruto darkly. And searched for third member of the Kumo team. He found him lying nearby, probably dead or unconscious.

One of the fuckers seemed to whisper something to the redhead, while smirking perversely. Naruto did not need to see more. He already decided. There was nothing that he hated more than rapists. He had some experiences with it. Maybe not the physical sort, but that didn't matter.

Naruto slowly pulled out his black sword, that didn't reflect any light. He pulled several smoke tags and attached them to kunais. He took a deep breath and carefully moved to better position. Naruto threw the kunais, aiming amidst the genins. Then shunshined right behind the one currently squeezing the left breast of the blonde girl. Naruto's sword traced an elegant arc and removed the fucker's head off his shoulders. There were angry screams. In that moment hit the ground Naruto's kunais. He detonated them and suddenly the whole clearing disappeared under the heavy white smoke. Naruto released his chakra and spread it. Dense, powerful and angry. He swapped himself with the rightmost Kusa shinobi. Naruto's sword flickered again, ripping the stomach of the next genin open. There was scream. Naruto shunshined to the other side, leaving behind himself ocean of leafs. The smoke swirled, sword flickered again and another bloodcurdling squelch could be heard. Naruto sensed two escaping life signatures. His wrists flickered, releasing four shurikens in two different directions. Short cries and thuds followed. Naruto could sense the rest of them in the center of the clearing. Huddled together and scared. But in that moment he didn't cared. He didn't cared one bit. He swung his sword and released it. Another scream. Naruto willed the ninja wire from his sleeve. Grabbed with it nearby kunai and knocked the rest of them out. Then proceeded to tie them down.

The smoke was thinning. Naruto looked at his clothes and sighed. He was a mess. One bloody mess. He lifted his shirt and wiped his face with it. Then turned towards the captured girls and smiled. They was just a little bit pale.

"Hello, long time no see," he smirked. Then realized that he shouldn't have probably do that. They were now significantly whiter then moment ago.

"Sorry," he said, pulled another kunai and proceeded to free them. "I have to be a mess. I think a got showered with blood several times." There was moment of silence while girls dressed themselves. Then the blonde asked carefully:

"Why did you help us?"

"Right," nodded Naruto and scratched his neck. "The first reason is, that I really hate rapists. And second one and simultaneously the main reason is, that I need your help."

"Help?" asked the redhead.

"Yeah. Do you have a medic in your team? One of my teammates is badly hurt and needs medical attention," asked Naruto and turned to search through the nearby corpses.

"Samui here can do some basic stuff," responded the redhead.

"Karui!" barked Samui.

"What? He saved our lives, so I think we can at least look at his teammate," rolled Karui her eyes.

"Alright! Jeez," muttered Samui and turned to Naruto. "I will look at your friend."

"Thank," said Naruto as he pocketed several silver badges. "By the way, the three fuckers over there are still alive. Do whatever you want with them."

"I will kill them," growled Karui, while picking her sword from the ground. "They are lucky that we are in middle of an exam! Otherwise I would torture them first!" she seethed. Then quickly slit their throats. In meanwhile, Naruto rescued his sword from someone's guts.

"Omoi seems ok, just knocked out," said Samui, while slapping him.

"Good," nodded Karui as she cleaned her sword. She turned to Naruto and asked: "What is your name?"

"Naruto."

"Then thanks for rescuing us," she smirked and added: "Tree-hugger."

Naruto snorted and said: "I will have to find out what to call you."

"What happened?" heard Naruto. It appeared that Kumo's third member was up.

"You can explain it to him later. My teammates are really close," said Naruto.

"Ok. We will follow you," said Samui.

...

"I have done everything that I can," said Samui and stood up tiredly. "I stopped the bleeding and checked for the poison. As far as I can say, she isn't infected. And that is your only luck, because I wouldn't be able to remove it either way."

"Doesn't matter. Thanks, for helping her," said Saburo.

"I am no longer surprised, that you fucked them up so hard," noted Karui.

"I just needed some stress reliever," shrugged Naruto.

"You know that your teammate will probably never be shinobi again?" asked Samui.

"Maybe, maybe not," said Naruto. "Only time will tell."

"So… this is the point where we split up," said Samui.

"Yeah. Good luck," said Naruto.

"The same to you," she responded and along with her teammates left.

"So what now?" asked Saburo.

"I think that we have still some time before night. We should try to move as much as we can towards the starting camp," suggested Naruto.

"It will certainly not hurt. Let's go," nodded Saburo and this time it was him who created several clones.

...

Naruto woke up to a sudden movement. He turned to his other side and saw stirring Midori.

"Naruto?" he heard.

"I am here," he sat. Outside was already dawn and so he could see Midori's face.

"Where are we?"

"Somewhere in Land of Rivers… We found a team who fixed your leg as much as they could. Most importantly the bleeding."

"Good," nodded Midori.

"I am sorry. I should have sensed him before it happened," said Naruto.

"I doubt you could. He had to be using some special technique to slip you," sighed Midori.

"Maybe… I will call Saburo and then we will continue towards the starting camp again. I want to finish this fucking test today," said Naruto.

"Ok," nodded Midori.

...

"Finished!" growled Naruto, when they stepped inside the starting camp. It looked completely different than before. There were several large tents. And one of them looked like field hospital.

"Yeah," agreed Saburo. "Let's take Midori inside."

"Good idea."

They placed Midori on one of the beds and sat on another.

"Congratulation," they heard. They turned and saw their sensei, Hayate.

"I don't think that there is anything to celebrate," muttered Naruto.

"What happened?" asked Hayate when he saw sleeping Midori.

"She got poisoned and we had to cut her ankle off," said Saburo. "Her career as shinobi ended."

Hayate was silent. He didn't have anything to say, that would make them feel better. He sighed. It was real shame. Midori was really promising. Hell, there was still possibility that she had bloodline.

"How many teams finished?" asked Naruto.

"You are the third team," answered Hayate.

"Is one them from Kusa?" asked Saburo.

"No. One from Iwa, one from Kumo and you. Why?" asked Hayate.

"It was them that poisoned her. Midori said that there doesn't exist antidote," said Saburo.

"And you want revenge," noted Hayate.

"Hell yes," muttered Saburo.

"Listen guys, go rest for few hours. I will wake you up and we will return to Suna. There are still two more days for the last two teams, so we will have to wait. We will talk about the rest later, ok?" said Hayate.

Naruto and Saburo sighed, but nodded.

...

Naruto stood up and stretched. Fourth day of the second part of the chunin exam was ending and he just finished eating his dinner in the hotel reserved for participants of chunin exam. He slowly walked the stairs up to the fourth floor, where their room was. Someone was in the hallway and the feeling of the chakra was familiar. Naruto shrugged and continued. He could saw Karui leaning on the wall next to the door to their room.

"Hi Karui," he greeted with raised eyebrow.

"Hi," answered Karui, then smirked and said: "You look much better without all that blood."

"You too. Change of hairstyle?" tilted Naruto his head.

"I wear the braids only into a battle," shrugged Karui.

"I see, both of those hairstyles suits you," nodded Naruto.

"Thanks," responded Karui.

Naruto waved his hand and asked: "So why are you here?"

"I came to thank you for rescuing us from… you know what," said Karui with wince.

"No need to. Those fuckers had it coming," shrugged Naruto. "And you guys helped Midori, so…"

"That was Samui, not me or Omoi," shook Karui her head.

"So you came to settle your personal debt or something?" smiled Naruto.

"Sort of," smirked Karui. "It's more along the lines of mutually beneficial exchange."

"Oh? Now you have got me really curious," grinned Naruto.

"Would you like to have some fun?" asked Karui with lazy smile. And Naruto's eyebrows shot to the ceiling. It took him probably half of the second to create a clone and send him inside the room to announce his absence. Pushing all thoughts about evil Kumo to the side. And saying:

"I would love to."

"Good, then come on," smiled Karui and pushed herself from the wall.

...

Naruto woke up to the sudden movement next to him. He smiled.

"So you are trying to sneak away?" he asked.

Karui next to him snorted. "The emphasis on the word tried," she rolled her eyes and turned towards Naruto, who let his eyes travel her upper body.

"I need shower. I am all sticky," said Karui and rolled over Naruto.

"It's no wonder," chuckled Naruto not letting his eyes from her gorgeous body. He didn't know if she was tanned or she was born with the dark skin, but it was sexy. He sighed.

"It's real shame that you aren't from Konoha," said Naruto.

"Me and tree-hugger? Never," smirked Karui from the bathroom door.

"It's still better than spark-farter," grinned Naruto.

Karui growled, but afterwards smiled slyly and said: "And to think that I was about to invite you to shower with me…"

...

"Still no fifth team?" asked Saburo.

"No," said Hayate.

"And there won't be," said approaching Naruto.

"What do you mean," asked Hayate.

"When I was dressing this morning I realized something," smiled Naruto and pulled from his pocket six steel badges.

"Why do you have them?" asked Hayate. "I thought that you returned them when you finished."

"We did, at least the required amount," smirked Naruto. Hayate sweated.

"And you couldn't tell us this before?" growled Hayate.

"As I said, I forgot about that," smiled innocently Naruto.

"But that means, that the Kusa team will not advance," frowned Saburo.

"No? From where is the fourth team?" asked Naruto.

"Oto."

"Fuck this," growled Naruto. But then an idea occurred to him. "Hey, sensei, where are held the next chunin exams?"

"Konoha, why?" asked Hayate confused.

"I just got an idea," smirked Naruto.

"What… no way! Do not even think about that!" growled Hayate.

"Naruto, are you thinking about what I think that you are thinking?" asked Saburo with slight smile on his face.

"Yes!" smirked Naruto even more widely.

"No! I forbid you to do that," growled Hayate.

"But sensei, it would not cost you anything. You wouldn't have to travel anywhere. Just to train with us for half a year longer," smiled Naruto.

"Do you know what will Hokage say?" growled Hayate.

"No," shook Naruto hi head, rolled his eyes and added: "And I don't care at all."

"You are such a brat," sighed Hayate already massaging his temples. He just could feel the headache coming.

"But you still love us," smirked Saburo.

...

"Ok, you are the only four teams which successfully completed the second part of the exam," said Baki again from his usual place in the room where once were all the genin teams. "That means, that we have twelve potential finalists. From that one is excused for injury which leaves us with eleven candidates. However to the final matches can advance maximally eight of you. That means we have to eliminate three more. But before that happens, if there is anyone who would like to withdraw, you can do so now," said Baki.

Naruto met Saburo's gaze and nodded.

"I want to withdraw," said Naruto.

"Me too," followed Saburo.

"What! Why? I wanted to fight you!" cried Karui.

"Our teammate needs professional treatment so we will be returning back to Konoha," shrugged Naruto, then moved towards Karui and whispered to her: "The Kusa team haven't advanced, that means that they will be in the next chunin exam."

"You are an idiot," rolled Karui her eyes.

"Maybe, but at least now you have chance to become chunin. Cause I won't kick your ass," smirked Naruto.

"As if you had chance tree-hugger," growled Karui.

...

"So you really did it," sighed Hayate.

"You doubted that we would?" smirked Naruto.

"Be silent brat. I have headache," growled their sensei. "And as punishment you and Saburo will carry Midori's stretcher to Konoha! Without any clones!"

"That is mean Hayate-sensei!" whined Naruto.

"I think that you deserve much more harsher punishment," said Midori from her stretcher. "You idiots!"

"You see Saburo, every good deed is severely punished," said Naruto.

"Yeah," sighed theatrically Saburo.

"I said be silent Brats! And move it along, I wants to be in Konoha as fast as possible," sighed Hayate.

A/N:

1.) As always, thanks for the reviews.  
2.) I have different plans for Gaara. Wait and see ;)  
3.) So far the longest chapter 8500+ words ;)  
4.) Before someone says something: I promise that this story will NOT turn into harem!  
5.) I don't know how old are Karui, Samui and Omoi in manga, and I don't care :P


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